Thoughts?
THEATRE GOSSIP #594: "THE NEW CABARET WAS A HORRENDOUS IDEA INEPTLY EXECUTED" EDITION
by Anonymous | reply 601 | July 7, 2025 11:26 PM |
It was better than the new Pirates!
by Anonymous | reply 1 | June 23, 2025 3:00 PM |
John Stamos dead, Zendaya dead, Dead Outlaw dead!!!
by Anonymous | reply 2 | June 23, 2025 3:15 PM |
Is David Cromer fucking Andrew Durand? I'd pay Broadway prices to watch that.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | June 23, 2025 3:27 PM |
Bea Arthur is a Herbie, not a Rose.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | June 23, 2025 3:36 PM |
R3, me, too!
by Anonymous | reply 5 | June 23, 2025 4:06 PM |
I must have the new thread creator on F/F. I start with R1.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | June 23, 2025 6:44 PM |
I avoided Cabaret this time around until a friend joined the cast. I loved it, especially Peck.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | June 23, 2025 6:48 PM |
I loved it when I saw it with Andrew Lambert and Auli'i Cravalho, R7. Both of them gave very fine performances.
I really think that dreadful, bizarre performance of Eddie Redmayne soured people on this production.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | June 23, 2025 7:25 PM |
Bring. It. Back!! I cannot be that difficult to revive.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | June 23, 2025 7:32 PM |
^^*It*
by Anonymous | reply 10 | June 23, 2025 7:33 PM |
What a come-down the Broadway CABARET must have been for Eddie Redmayne.
He won the Olivier and was the toast of London in a hit show with rave reviews. Then he comes to NY, and the reviews are mixed at best, and he was never going to win the Tony.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | June 23, 2025 7:38 PM |
DeShields could still do it!
by Anonymous | reply 12 | June 23, 2025 7:39 PM |
R12 Yes, and now doing the Nell Carter track!
by Anonymous | reply 13 | June 23, 2025 8:08 PM |
R6: “I must have the new thread creator on F/F. I start with [R1].”
Swallow your pride like you swallowed loads at Pride and unblock OP.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | June 23, 2025 8:09 PM |
Or not
by Anonymous | reply 15 | June 23, 2025 8:34 PM |
The new thread title is DREADFUL!
by Anonymous | reply 16 | June 23, 2025 8:37 PM |
If I'm asked (admittedly not that often) to name productions in my lifetime that I consider perfect, the original AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' always tops the list.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | June 23, 2025 8:37 PM |
[quote]So, exactly how much internalized homophobia and self loathing do you harbor, sweetheart?
Do you realize you just said that in your gay voice, cupcake ?
by Anonymous | reply 18 | June 23, 2025 9:00 PM |
Now that most of this season's flops have closed (c'mon already Boop!), can we push for the too-long-running Chicago, Hadestown, &Juliet, Six, The Book of Mormon, Harry Potter and Moulin Rouge to shutter and go away and make room for new shit?,
by Anonymous | reply 19 | June 23, 2025 10:00 PM |
I left out Wicked, The Lion King, Aladdin and Hamilton cause they're still raking it in.
Probably should have included MJ and Hell's Kitchen (too noisy!).
by Anonymous | reply 20 | June 23, 2025 10:01 PM |
There had been rumors a few months ago that 'Six', '& Juliet' and 'Moulin Rouge!' was supposed to be closing at the end of this summer, but I haven't heard anything since.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | June 23, 2025 10:08 PM |
I saw "Cabaret" last summer with Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin. I agree, it was a horrendous idea, ineptly executed.
Redmayne played the emcee like a Batman villain, and the producers' attempt to completely disengage Sally Bowles from the Liza template (impossible and foolhardy, imo) by recasting her as a Courtney Love-style grunge/kinderwhore types did not work *at all.*
by Anonymous | reply 22 | June 23, 2025 10:10 PM |
Frecknall is a lousy director. First Cabaret, then Streetcar. I hear she's going to fuck up Death Of A Salesman next.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | June 23, 2025 10:29 PM |
One more week and nobody will ever have to hear "Andy Payne" from Dead Outlaw ever again!
by Anonymous | reply 24 | June 23, 2025 10:33 PM |
R23 is going to be more of a Death of a Shopbottom
by Anonymous | reply 25 | June 23, 2025 10:37 PM |
the Jimmy's are live!
streaming through June 26 I believe
(every time you spot a future Datalounger....down a shot)
by Anonymous | reply 26 | June 23, 2025 11:41 PM |
R26 "the award show for those who want to be spit on by Jonathan Groff" from the opening monologue
by Anonymous | reply 27 | June 24, 2025 12:00 AM |
[Quote] Now that most of this season's flops have closed (c'mon already Boop!), can we push for the too-long-running Chicago, Hadestown, &Juliet, Six, The Book of Mormon, Harry Potter and Moulin Rouge to shutter and go away and make room for new shit?,
There’s sad thing is most of the new shit is just shitty too
by Anonymous | reply 28 | June 24, 2025 1:02 AM |
I saw Eddie walking the midtown streets last year with his family. He looked very happy
by Anonymous | reply 29 | June 24, 2025 1:56 AM |
Who will be in the 2027 revivals of Gypsy and Cabaret? You know they are coming, new and improved! What about Annie and 12 Angry Men? I hear Glengarry is due for another revival too.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | June 24, 2025 2:45 AM |
The rest of the family was screaming: Rats!!
by Anonymous | reply 31 | June 24, 2025 2:46 AM |
Can we get a new female ODD COUPLE? Maybe Patti and Mia.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | June 24, 2025 3:08 AM |
^^ I just said that to (try to) be funny... I rather detest Neil Simon. Which of his works have been revived on Broadway since his death?
Do you think his crap will fade away (aside from community theater) or will it grow in reputation and stature as the years pass?
by Anonymous | reply 33 | June 24, 2025 3:14 AM |
The only Broadway revival to date of a Neil Simon play since his 2018 death was Plaza Suite in 2022.
by Anonymous | reply 34 | June 24, 2025 3:35 AM |
Next year, Sydney Sweeney IS the Star-Spangled Girl!
by Anonymous | reply 35 | June 24, 2025 3:36 AM |
And Cheno is The Gingerbread Lady
by Anonymous | reply 36 | June 24, 2025 3:57 AM |
Please let Cole Escola be the Star-Spangled Girl!
by Anonymous | reply 37 | June 24, 2025 4:00 AM |
[quote]I must have the new thread creator on F/F. I start with [R1].
How lovely to be ignored by you, R6. One of my proudest accomplishments :-)
by Anonymous | reply 38 | June 24, 2025 4:54 AM |
[quote]Do you realize you just said that in your gay voice, cupcake ?
Whatever voice I said it in, R18, I know the truth hurts, so you must be hurting big-time.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | June 24, 2025 4:56 AM |
Billy Porter and Dylan Mulvaney as Paul and Corie Bratter in Barefoot in the Ramble!
by Anonymous | reply 40 | June 24, 2025 6:50 AM |
Tom Wopat In COME BLOW MY HORN!
by Anonymous | reply 41 | June 24, 2025 6:54 AM |
I saw "Cabaret" last summer with Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin. I agree, it was a horrendous idea, ineptly executed. Redmayne played the emcee like a Batman villain, and the producers' attempt to completely disengage Sally Bowles from the Liza template (impossible and foolhardy, imo) by recasting her as a Courtney Love-style grunge/kinderwhore types did not work *at all.*
[quote]I agree about Redmayne. Absolutley dreadful. Subsequent Emcees have been much more successful in this revival. I'm not sure I agree with the characterization of Sally being "disengaged from the Liza template," though. The film is its own thing... completely refashioned around Liza, of course. But, I don't think the Sally from the celebrated (and massively successful) Mendes revival was a transfer of the Liza Sally. I recognize that the revival incorporated a lot of the film songs that Liza originated, but, I don't see the Natasha Richardson generation of Sallys to be doing a "Liza". They were their own thing. If anything, they were an update to the Jill Haworth / Judi Dench Sally.
I don't know if original directors work much with subsequent casts, but I thought the Broadway Sally who was in the role prior to the current one... the actress who was there the same time as Adam Lambert... was absolutely fantastic. I was also pleasantly surprised that although she, yes, had some of that harshness around the edges for sure, she injected a LOT more musicality and charm into her vocal performances than I recall seeing in the earlier London and NY Sallys from this revival. Honestly, if she and Adam Lambert had opened this production, I 100% think it would have earned better reviews because both of them were still true to this revival's tone and concept, BUT, both of them were vocally sublime and infinitely more charming than their predecessors.
by Anonymous | reply 42 | June 24, 2025 7:58 AM |
Sorry, I fucked up the formatting of my post at R42. The first paragraph should have been the one I quoted from R22 / jeangenie. I'll repost below......
*********************ORIGINAL POST AT R42 SHOULD HAVE READ....***************
[QUOTE]I saw "Cabaret" last summer with Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin. I agree, it was a horrendous idea, ineptly executed. Redmayne played the emcee like a Batman villain, and the producers' attempt to completely disengage Sally Bowles from the Liza template (impossible and foolhardy, imo) by recasting her as a Courtney Love-style grunge/kinderwhore types did not work *at all.*
I agree about Redmayne. Absolutley dreadful. Subsequent Emcees have been much more successful in this revival. I'm not sure I agree with the characterization of Sally being "disengaged from the Liza template," though. The film is its own thing... completely refashioned around Liza, of course. But, I don't think the Sally from the celebrated (and massively successful) Mendes revival was a transfer of the Liza Sally. I recognize that the revival incorporated a lot of the film songs that Liza originated, but, I don't see the Natasha Richardson generation of Sallys to be doing a "Liza". They were their own thing. If anything, they were an update to the Jill Haworth / Judi Dench Sally.
I don't know if original directors work much with subsequent casts, but I thought the Broadway Sally who was in the role prior to the current one... the actress who was there the same time as Adam Lambert... was absolutely fantastic. I was also pleasantly surprised that although she, yes, had some of that harshness around the edges for sure, she injected a LOT more musicality and charm into her vocal performances than I recall seeing in the earlier London and NY Sallys from this revival. Honestly, if she and Adam Lambert had opened this production, I 100% think it would have earned better reviews because both of them were still true to this revival's tone and concept, BUT, both of them were vocally sublime and infinitely more charming than their predecessors.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | June 24, 2025 8:00 AM |
*********************REACTION TO R43 and R42..... NEEDS TO BE SAID***************
Chill out, Mary! We overlooked the fuck up and were able to read your long post.
by Anonymous | reply 44 | June 24, 2025 8:15 AM |
Any Nor Cal gals seen Datalounge favorite KAREN ZIEMBA's Dolly Levi at the Sacramento Music Fair?
by Anonymous | reply 45 | June 24, 2025 10:27 AM |
[quote]Whatever voice I said it in, [R18], I know the truth hurts, so you must be hurting big-time.
Going from your 'knowledge', if you said something true, it must be hurting me big time. However, none of what you said is true. So continue if you wish, as long as you...
STOP talking in your gay voice! You have purses falling out of your mouth every time you speak.
by Anonymous | reply 46 | June 24, 2025 11:43 AM |
Marjorie Prime is coming to Broadway in the fall.
It has a choice role for a woman of a certain age.
Lois Smith played the role in the movie and in 2015.
Any rumors for who is doing the Broadway transfer?
I would love to see someone like Stockard Channing or Blythe Danner in the role.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | June 24, 2025 1:16 PM |
I saw the great Brit actress Anne Reid in Marjorie Prime at the Menier Chocolate Factory a few years ago. Such a dumb play, even she couldn't save it.
by Anonymous | reply 48 | June 24, 2025 1:19 PM |
Loïs will do it.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | June 24, 2025 1:20 PM |
Is Cherry Jones too young?
by Anonymous | reply 50 | June 24, 2025 1:42 PM |
Yes, r50. Though Cherry must be 70 by now the character should really look at least 85 or so.
by Anonymous | reply 51 | June 24, 2025 2:08 PM |
Hmmmm, how to get past that issue?🤔
by Anonymous | reply 52 | June 24, 2025 2:11 PM |
R47 there are worse things she could do.
by Anonymous | reply 53 | June 24, 2025 2:16 PM |
Stockard is doing the revival of Prisoner Of Second Avenue.
by Anonymous | reply 54 | June 24, 2025 2:33 PM |
[Quote] Stockard is doing the revival of Prisoner Of Second Avenue.
Has her face settled yet? The plastic surgery was positively gruesome
by Anonymous | reply 55 | June 24, 2025 2:45 PM |
[quote]STOP talking in your gay voice! You have purses falling out of your mouth every time you speak.
And you have tired cliches falling out of your mouth, like little turds out of your asshole.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | June 24, 2025 2:58 PM |
[quote]Any Nor Cal gals seen Datalounge favorite KAREN ZIEMBA's Dolly Levi at the Sacramento Music Fair?
Did they interpolate a banjo solo for Karen?
by Anonymous | reply 57 | June 24, 2025 3:44 PM |
Jake Shears (in London) was my favorite Emcee of the ones I have seen in this current production (which only included Eddie Redmayne’s creepy, crazed Kermit). Shears was simply phenomenal and is now my new standard for the role.
by Anonymous | reply 58 | June 24, 2025 4:35 PM |
Victoria Clark in KIMBERLY did not look 85.
by Anonymous | reply 59 | June 24, 2025 4:58 PM |
Tabitha
by Anonymous | reply 60 | June 24, 2025 5:01 PM |
Curiously, everything got a bump last week except for the Tony-winning Maybe Happy Ending and Oh, Mary!
How do you explain that??
by Anonymous | reply 62 | June 24, 2025 5:30 PM |
[Quote] Jake Shears (in London) was my favorite Emcee of the ones I have seen in this current production
I bet he played the role as sexy as hell
by Anonymous | reply 63 | June 24, 2025 5:43 PM |
"Chess" best not be counting on the Broadhurst.
by Anonymous | reply 65 | June 24, 2025 6:14 PM |
[QUOTE] I bet he played the role as sexy as hell
Sexy, but scary. Like, “If you don’t get on your knees and blow me right now, you’re getting on that train.”
by Anonymous | reply 66 | June 24, 2025 6:20 PM |
Stephen Sondheim on the creation of Rose's Turn - 2003
by Anonymous | reply 67 | June 24, 2025 6:21 PM |
[QUOTE] As I'm sure many people here know, the story is that Marsha Mason saw an early run-through or presentation of the show and explained this to Bennett et al., who to their credit realized she was absolutely right.
This Marsha Mason factoid is covered in a Michael Bennett story in the short story collection “Better Davis and Other Stories” where Bennett is the protagonist and the point-of-view character. He is very drunk and coked up at a party in 1982 where current and former A Chorus Line cast members are at a Christmas party at the Public Theater wearing exaggerated “old people” versions of the costumes they wear in the show. Val’s tits drags behind her, Donna McKechnie is in a white fright wig, etc. It’s based on a party that actually took place during the holidays that year..
His take on the devastating ending of the show is also the same as what was mentioned in the earlier thread. It’s not supposed to be some fun, happy, golden finale. Audiences can tell there is something hollow and off about it.
by Anonymous | reply 68 | June 24, 2025 6:44 PM |
And the disastrous film accentuated that. I seem to remember “One” was downright ghoulish, reducing the dancers to automatons with frozen grins.
by Anonymous | reply 69 | June 24, 2025 7:27 PM |
[quote]R47 Marjorie Prime is coming to Broadway in the fall. It has a choice role for a woman of a certain age.
Will she have gay voice?
by Anonymous | reply 70 | June 24, 2025 7:53 PM |
[quote]R47 I would love to see someone like Stockard Channing or Blythe Danner in the role.
My friend who acted with her said Stockard Channing’s a selfish cunt, so not her.
Old Mother Goop is also debatable.
by Anonymous | reply 71 | June 24, 2025 7:55 PM |
R69. That was the best part of the movie.
by Anonymous | reply 72 | June 24, 2025 8:03 PM |
Why did Maybe Happy Ending drop so dramatically last week?
Was Darren out for some reason?
If so, that doesn't bode well for MHE's future.
by Anonymous | reply 73 | June 24, 2025 8:12 PM |
Surely though an older actress would line up for the chance at a definite Tony nomination (if not win)
Actresses 80+ who have done stage work
Estelle Parsons
Blythe Danner
Stockard Channing
Jane Fonda
Ellen Burstyn
Lily Tomlin
Vanessa Redgrave
Frances De La Tour
Swoosie Kurtz
Diane Keaton (grand return to stage)
Meryl Streep (75, but can wear older makeup and FINALLY win a Tony)
Betty Buckley (78)
by Anonymous | reply 74 | June 24, 2025 8:15 PM |
[quote]Diane Keaton (grand return to stage)
That's not going to happen.
by Anonymous | reply 75 | June 24, 2025 8:19 PM |
I need to FUCK Eddie Redmayne deeply& rim his shitter.
I loved him in Cabaret, saw it in London.
by Anonymous | reply 76 | June 24, 2025 8:28 PM |
Darren was out for two performances last week.
by Anonymous | reply 77 | June 24, 2025 8:30 PM |
[quote]Curiously, everything got a bump last week except for the Tony-winning Maybe Happy Ending and Oh, Mary! How do you explain that??
I'm guessing that people were rushing to see shows that were closing, whereas they figure there's no great rush to see the huge hits. Did this reason not occur to you?
by Anonymous | reply 78 | June 24, 2025 8:31 PM |
Blythe Danner should do The Trip to Bountiful.
by Anonymous | reply 79 | June 24, 2025 8:31 PM |
[quote]Jake Shears (in London) was my favorite Emcee of the ones I have seen in this current production
Really? The overall concept of this production is so weird, ridiculous, and off-putting that I can't imagine it makes much difference who's playing the leads.
by Anonymous | reply 80 | June 24, 2025 8:33 PM |
Well, then your imagination is limited, R80.
by Anonymous | reply 81 | June 24, 2025 8:45 PM |
r74, of your list I'd say Estelle Parsons is most suited to the old lady in Marjorie Prime.
It needs an actress who can affect a very ordinary demeanor, not someone who'd refuse to be de-glamourized, as so many on that list would. Ellen Burstyn might also be good. And Vanessa, of course, though she now radiates some kind of national monument icon which would upset the fragile balance of the play.
by Anonymous | reply 82 | June 24, 2025 9:04 PM |
And though not on your list, you couldn't do better than Lois Smith, of course.
by Anonymous | reply 83 | June 24, 2025 9:05 PM |
What about....
PATTI!!!!
She needs a 4th Tony!!!!!
by Anonymous | reply 84 | June 24, 2025 9:16 PM |
There were rumors that 'Burlesque' was going to be a stage musical, and there was a workshop planned. Does anyone know what happened with that ? I think it was going to premiere on the West End.
by Anonymous | reply 85 | June 24, 2025 9:24 PM |
Why does the West End always turn American movies into musicals?
Dirty Dancing, Back to the Future, The Bodyguard, Flashdance, Ghost, Groundhog Day, etc.
by Anonymous | reply 86 | June 24, 2025 9:31 PM |
Estelle Parsons is just astounding on stage. I got to see her in “August: Osage County” twice, once at the Kennedy Center and once on Broadway, and it was one of my all-time favorite stage performances.
Right up there with Glenda Jackson in “Three Tall Women.”
by Anonymous | reply 87 | June 24, 2025 9:32 PM |
[quote]Why does the West End always turn American movies into musicals?
For the EXACT same reason Broadway does.
by Anonymous | reply 88 | June 24, 2025 9:37 PM |
[Quote] There were rumors that 'Burlesque' was going to be a stage musical, and there was a workshop planned. Does anyone know what happened with that ?
Because they realized it sucked?
by Anonymous | reply 89 | June 24, 2025 9:47 PM |
Apparently, 'MHE' forgot to report one of their performances. They have resubmitted their numbers and the grosses should be adjusted tomorrow. So they will be down, but not as bad as reported. Criss was out for both performances on the 18th (preplanned). Ticket holders were notified about a week before to exchange or return tickets.
by Anonymous | reply 92 | June 24, 2025 10:01 PM |
Boop! won the game of chicken. Chess blinked, and instead of waiting any longer for the Broadhurst, it's going to the Imperial.
by Anonymous | reply 93 | June 24, 2025 10:10 PM |
Despite your snarky comment, R81, I don't think my "imagination is limited" when imagining different performers in the current production of CABARET. In my opinion, the production concept of the director and the designers is so weird, disgusting, and also so rigid that it would scarcely matter who's playing the leads.
by Anonymous | reply 94 | June 24, 2025 10:35 PM |
BOOP going to a whopping $600,000 doesn't buy them any more time. They still probably lost $250,000 at that gross. July 4 is my guess...Labor Day at most
by Anonymous | reply 95 | June 24, 2025 10:46 PM |
I'll bet Cheno was ecstatic that her age was revealed to the whole country.
by Anonymous | reply 96 | June 24, 2025 11:10 PM |
I wonder what's going next into the Shortacre...uh I mean the Longacre.
by Anonymous | reply 97 | June 24, 2025 11:43 PM |
The original production of Chess played the Imperial. And that worked out so well.
by Anonymous | reply 98 | June 24, 2025 11:51 PM |
Reviews for the west end Hercules are pretty mixed.
by Anonymous | reply 99 | June 25, 2025 12:02 AM |
I saw both Dunnigan and Parsons in August. I thought Parsons much better, and I think Morton should have won the Tony.
by Anonymous | reply 100 | June 25, 2025 12:10 AM |
R99, saw a version of Hercules at the Papermill Playhouse a few years back.
Meh
by Anonymous | reply 101 | June 25, 2025 12:17 AM |
I'll be seeing Hercules in September on the West End. Hope it's still running then. Good or bad, I'll stay through the whole thing - yes, I CAN GO THE DISTANCE!
by Anonymous | reply 102 | June 25, 2025 12:46 AM |
[quote]R74 Surely though an older actress would line up for the chance at a definite Tony nomination (if not win) - - Estelle Parsons, Blythe Danner, Stockard Channing, Jane Fonda, Ellen Burstyn, Lily Tomlin, Vanessa Redgrave, Frances De La Tour, Swoosie Kurtz, Diane Keaton (grand return to stage), Meryl Streep (75, but can wear older makeup and FINALLY win a Tony), Betty Buckley (78)
Goddamn you, little homosexual boys!
by Anonymous | reply 103 | June 25, 2025 1:59 AM |
I have no idea if this London Hercules is any good but I do know, on trusted authority, that it's a very different version than the one that played at Paper Mill and IIRC before that at the Delacorte. Lear de Bessonet directed those first 2 productions but this new one is directed by Casey NIcholaw.
by Anonymous | reply 104 | June 25, 2025 2:17 AM |
What were the reciews like for “Stereophonic” in London? I’ve had trouble finding them online for some reason.
by Anonymous | reply 105 | June 25, 2025 2:33 AM |
Jane Krakowski would have been hilarious in Xanadu. And she could roller skate.
by Anonymous | reply 107 | June 25, 2025 3:37 AM |
Saw Old Friends tonight. Too bad it's so staged like a musical "spectacular"of TV yesteryear. However, some great moments, including Ladies Who Lunch by a terrific Joanna Riding (replacing Beth Leavel) and a truly exquisite Send in the Clowns (and I don't even like Bernadette. And I fell in love with a guy named Jacob Dickey. Tee hee.
by Anonymous | reply 109 | June 25, 2025 3:43 AM |
Someone on the theater threads used to post about working with the dancer-choreographer Edie Cowan. I saw she died last month, then found a wonderful long interview she did in January. She started on Broadway dancing in "Funny Girl," played young Phyllis in a tour of "Follies" with Vivian Blaine, and choreographed the original off-Broadway production of "Little Shop of Horrors." She sounds so lively in the January interview and mentions that she goes tango dancing several times a week, so i assume she died unexpectedly. Anyhow, she shares lots of funny stories (link in next post).
RIP
by Anonymous | reply 110 | June 25, 2025 3:57 AM |
How many of you are buying CHESS tickets today? I think I will wait....
by Anonymous | reply 112 | June 25, 2025 4:44 AM |
R96 Kristin sounded awful singing the national anthem. I had second-hand embarrassment for her.
by Anonymous | reply 113 | June 25, 2025 9:41 AM |
[quote] I CAN GO THE DISTANCE!
The stupidest song in Hercules. It needs to be cut because it adds little to the show.
by Anonymous | reply 114 | June 25, 2025 12:06 PM |
[quote]How many of you are buying CHESS tickets today? I think I will wait....
Im sure there will be a mad rush to see a middling cast sing a middling show at highly inflated prices.
Wait for the discount codes
by Anonymous | reply 115 | June 25, 2025 12:07 PM |
[quote]I have no idea if this London Hercules is any good but I do know, on trusted authority, that it's a very different version than the one that played at Paper Mill and IIRC before that at the Delacorte. Lear de Bessonet directed those first 2 productions but this new one is directed by Casey NIcholaw.
The main problem is the script
by Anonymous | reply 116 | June 25, 2025 12:07 PM |
Will Lea be doing all 8 performances?
by Anonymous | reply 117 | June 25, 2025 12:17 PM |
R81 is Barbara Thorndyke
by Anonymous | reply 118 | June 25, 2025 12:54 PM |
R118 made me laugh and I almost wrote that too.
R114 why would they cut the only known song from the show that was Oscar nominated for best song?
by Anonymous | reply 119 | June 25, 2025 1:26 PM |
R117 probably. The reason Lea didn't do 8 shows a week for FUNNY GIRL was because Julie Benko was originally hired to be Beanie Feldstein's alternate and after she was let go, they didn't want to fire Julie, too.
by Anonymous | reply 120 | June 25, 2025 1:27 PM |
Thanks, R106.
by Anonymous | reply 121 | June 25, 2025 1:33 PM |
Does anyone else else feel the initial 2022 casting for FUNNY GIRL was a mistake?
by Anonymous | reply 122 | June 25, 2025 1:35 PM |
R122, please tell us you're being sarcastic.
by Anonymous | reply 123 | June 25, 2025 1:36 PM |
I'll wait to buy tickets until they announce the Thursday night Florence.
by Anonymous | reply 124 | June 25, 2025 2:25 PM |
[quote]why would they cut the only known song from the show that was Oscar nominated for best song?
No one remembers anything from that movie.
by Anonymous | reply 125 | June 25, 2025 2:28 PM |
Currently on ATC, there are at least two reminders of why I rarely go there anymore. First, the comically reprehensible Singapore/Fling is insulting Playwrights Horizons because it's upcoming seasons doesn't happen to include any plays written by women (though others have pointed out that at least two of the people whose plays were chosen seem to be non-binary). And then some pretentious fool who goes by the handle "champagnesalesman" wrote that he opted out of seeing the recent HELLO, DOLLY! concert at Carnegie Hall "because a lot of the cast seemed more like a 54 Below concert cast." He then wrote, "but everyone I know who went loved it so I guess I should have gone!" Yes, you're right about that, you snobbish twit.
by Anonymous | reply 126 | June 25, 2025 2:28 PM |
When is the Hello, Dolly concert? Considering last year's Follies sold out in minutes, it's surprising that sales for Hello, Dolly! are limping along.
They should have done something like Mama, which has been in NYC for a long while
by Anonymous | reply 127 | June 25, 2025 2:37 PM |
The Playwrights Horizons season is mostly male, a few of whom have adopted to use non-gender-specific pronouns.
by Anonymous | reply 128 | June 25, 2025 2:39 PM |
[quote]The Playwrights Horizons season is mostly male, a few of whom have adopted to use non-gender-specific pronouns.
And there are many good reasons why it might have fallen out that way. Are you advocating for a quota system that must be adhered to no matter what?
by Anonymous | reply 129 | June 25, 2025 2:48 PM |
[quote]When is the Hello, Dolly concert? Considering last year's Follies sold out in minutes, it's surprising that sales for Hello, Dolly! are limping along.
Umm, it happened two nights ago, and the theater looked very full.
[quote]They should have done something like Mama, which has been in NYC for a long while
Have you considered that (1) MAME might have not been available, and/or (2) there are several good reasons why they might not have wanted to do that show/score?
by Anonymous | reply 130 | June 25, 2025 2:51 PM |
Any reports on how Hello Dolly was?
by Anonymous | reply 131 | June 25, 2025 3:13 PM |
The Chess advance sale website has crashed.
by Anonymous | reply 132 | June 25, 2025 3:22 PM |
[quote] And there are many good reasons why it might have fallen out that way. Are you advocating for a quota system that must be adhered to no matter what?
Not at all, I was just clarifying an earlier post. Using they/them pronouns doesn't make you a female. PH has had a long history producing plays by women and wound not judge them based on a single season.
by Anonymous | reply 133 | June 25, 2025 3:37 PM |
[quote]PH has had a long history producing plays by women and wound not judge them based on a single season.
Good, because that was my main point, that it's reprehensible for an insufferable fool to anonymously judge them in an online forum based on a single season.
by Anonymous | reply 134 | June 25, 2025 3:47 PM |
I know first hand how projects come together and fall apart, R134, and you can only produce the projects that are ready.
by Anonymous | reply 135 | June 25, 2025 4:02 PM |
Right, R135, and that further proves my point.
by Anonymous | reply 136 | June 25, 2025 4:18 PM |
Playwrights Horizons receives hundreds if not thousands of new play submissions every year. It is one of the premiere institutions in NY for premiering new American work. None of the playwrights listed in the new season are well-known names. And they're producing 6 plays this coming season, more than usual.
So it is really incomprehensible that they couldn't find at least another play written by a woman. Or hire a woman director.
by Anonymous | reply 137 | June 25, 2025 6:10 PM |
[QUOTE] So it is really incomprehensible that they couldn't find at least another play written by a woman. Or hire a woman director.
Why exactly? Maybe none of the submissions by women were as good as the men’s or the they’s. Why must everything be a contest with you people?
by Anonymous | reply 138 | June 25, 2025 7:24 PM |
What's incomprehensible to me is how R137 and his/her/their are too dim and reactionary to understand the chilling effect of a quota system that dictates there MUST WITHOUT FAIL be a certain number of various kinds of people hired as actors or playwrights or directors of whatever for every show, every season. Amazing that they go so far as to slam a theater company with not including any plays by women in ONE of its seasons when that company has featured many plays by women in past seasons, and no doubt will do so again in future.
by Anonymous | reply 139 | June 25, 2025 7:39 PM |
[quote]r138 Why must everything be a contest with you people?
Well, it's not really a contest, is it, when just one side's reresented?
by Anonymous | reply 140 | June 25, 2025 7:54 PM |
r137 here.
To elaborate, PH like many similar NY non-profit theaters (MTC, The Atlantic, The Vineyard, Roundabout, LCT3, etc.) produce many new plays in a season that are finally merely mediocre to bad, try as they may to choose the most-deserving submissions. I'm sure you've all seen many of these disappointing new plays.
So it's very hard (for me) to believe that among their hundreds (thousands?) of possibilities from mostly youngish unknown playwrights (that's what this coming season will be) that it wouldn't be as easy and genuinely magnanimous to choose a couple from young women writers. I can't imagine they could be so sure of the six finalists that there wouldn't be many viable runner-ups in the mix, some of which might be from women writers.
It's all a crap shoot anyway when you're dealing with such new untried material from writers without much of a track record. And optics do matter.
Just my opinion. It's not a science.
by Anonymous | reply 141 | June 25, 2025 8:39 PM |
R141, but you're tremendously oversimplifying the situation. First of all, we're not talking about simply choosing from a bunch of scripts submitted. In most cases, major considerations include what state of development the play is in, how many workshop productions if any it has had, if there is any kind of co-production involved, etc.
So there are all of those variables, and more to contend with as well. But ultimately, in a way, they're all beside the point, because you seem to be saying that, regardless, a certain number of scripts by women (or gay people, or POC, or whatever) MUST be chosen for production as part of a quota system.
Maybe you should try looking at it the other way: Unless PH consciously and purposefully chose a season entirely consisting of plays by men out of sheer misogyny, which of course is an utterly ridiculous thought, then it just so happens that this particular season fell out that way, and there is nothing wrong going on here at all.
by Anonymous | reply 142 | June 25, 2025 9:05 PM |
[quote]No one remembers anything from that movie.
R125 Hades is a very popular Disney villain and many people also enjoy the Muses and Meg's sarcasm.
As for the music, "Go the Distance" and "I Won't Say I'm in Love" are favorites on social media.
I don't know why you're trying to downplay the movie.
by Anonymous | reply 143 | June 25, 2025 9:17 PM |
Well, they held on longer than I'd have expected ...
by Anonymous | reply 145 | June 25, 2025 9:48 PM |
Audra out tonite
by Anonymous | reply 146 | June 25, 2025 11:18 PM |
^ must be a day that ends in Y
by Anonymous | reply 147 | June 25, 2025 11:31 PM |
Ha! Good one, R147.
by Anonymous | reply 148 | June 25, 2025 11:41 PM |
What with Hercules' disappointing London reviews and the previous collapse of Frozen I think Disney's days of blockbuster musicals are over. Except, of course, for the perennial Lion King (from which they never seemed to learn a lesson) and the soon to be perennial Aladdin (as they're not going to find another new show to replace it.
They keep over-producing everything and you have to be careful over-producing a cartoon. It all just seems so ponderous and kitschy, a very bad combo.
How long before they revive Beauty & the Beast on Broadway? Will it sell out again? Newsies?
by Anonymous | reply 149 | June 26, 2025 12:38 AM |
R149. Beauty and the Beast is getting ready to go out on National Tour. Maybe Broadway will be the final stop.
by Anonymous | reply 150 | June 26, 2025 12:43 AM |
I wonder if anyone at Disney's theatrical branch has ever dared to suggest a full-length stage version of Pocahontas. Or Mulan.
by Anonymous | reply 151 | June 26, 2025 1:06 AM |
[quote]Hades is a very popular Disney villain and many people also enjoy the Muses and Meg's sarcasm. As for the music, "Go the Distance" and "I Won't Say I'm in Love" are favorites on social media. I don't know why you're trying to downplay the movie.
Sorry, not ringing a bell
by Anonymous | reply 152 | June 26, 2025 1:24 AM |
There's also Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame making the rounds. Seems like to be in the same sort of limbo Hercules is
by Anonymous | reply 153 | June 26, 2025 1:25 AM |
Boop Takes a Poop! —VARIETY
by Anonymous | reply 154 | June 26, 2025 1:36 AM |
Interesting, R149. It could certainly be argue that all of Disney's Broadway shows, including THE LION KING and ALADDIN, were "overproduced."
by Anonymous | reply 155 | June 26, 2025 2:47 AM |
At least Lion King was over-produced with style and imagination.
by Anonymous | reply 156 | June 26, 2025 2:49 AM |
[quote] Any reports on how Hello Dolly was?
Haven't heard a lot about the whole concert, but apparently Marilyn Maye's performance of Before The Parade Passes By was a showstopper.
by Anonymous | reply 157 | June 26, 2025 4:20 AM |
The pro-shot of Frozen popped up on Disney Plus a week ago. Having failed to see it during its Broadway run, I’m not surprised it died a quick death. What an absolutely turgid and inept shitshow - and the London production that was filmed is supposed to have been the improved staging.
It’s a fascinating case study in how to fuck up a stage adaptation: roughly the same length as the film on which it is based but lacks any of the charm, wit, or grace of its source material. The narrative is clunky, it’s tonally all over the place, the new songs underwhelming and strange, and it all feels so desperately laboured.
I was surprised how irredeemably dreadful it is. And there’s something particularly dreary and undignified about a stage work that requires live performers to enthusiastically wade through shit eight times a week in what is - at best - an expensive mnemonic for the far superior film on which it is based.
by Anonymous | reply 158 | June 26, 2025 6:06 AM |
Kudos to R158 for using the word “mnemonic.”
by Anonymous | reply 159 | June 26, 2025 8:38 AM |
[quote]Haven't heard a lot about the whole concert, but apparently Marilyn Maye's performance of Before The Parade Passes By was a showstopper.
A genuine showstopper, or an "I can't believe she's 97 years old" showstopper?
by Anonymous | reply 160 | June 26, 2025 8:47 AM |
r142, just think of the optics if PH produced a season with all women playwrights and directors. Just because they couldn't find any men suitable for those positions.
by Anonymous | reply 161 | June 26, 2025 1:32 PM |
Both, R160. Definitely both.
by Anonymous | reply 162 | June 26, 2025 1:33 PM |
R161, your posts are becoming increasingly ridiculous. Of course, this has nothing to do with "not being able to find" talented female playwrights and directors, so please stop with the really dumb false equivalencies.
by Anonymous | reply 163 | June 26, 2025 1:35 PM |
7 years ago….
by Anonymous | reply 165 | June 26, 2025 2:20 PM |
Maye was sensational, but, for me, it was Kate Baldwin who stole the show. Ghee was awful. Who the fuck thought he could handle So Long, Dearie? He should have done the Hello, Dolly number in a red ball gown. Simard, even at the last minute, seemed to be channeling Leslie Kritzer in the second act of Beetlejuice. Chris Sieber was also wonderful. And please, somebody revive Crazy For You for A.J. Shively.
by Anonymous | reply 166 | June 26, 2025 3:16 PM |
A.J. is great, R166, but what made you think of him for CRAZY FOR YOU in particular?
by Anonymous | reply 167 | June 26, 2025 3:51 PM |
Kate Baldwin is always a luminous performer. Gorgeous woman.
by Anonymous | reply 168 | June 26, 2025 4:27 PM |
The B-52s are still going?!
by Anonymous | reply 169 | June 26, 2025 5:04 PM |
Too bad these concerts aren't videotaped. Or are they....?
by Anonymous | reply 170 | June 26, 2025 6:31 PM |
That Jimmys clip reminded me how dorky cute Josh Groban is. Has anyone ever had him?
by Anonymous | reply 171 | June 26, 2025 7:07 PM |
Who won a Jimmy?
by Anonymous | reply 172 | June 26, 2025 7:10 PM |
Kate Baldwin’s “Losing My Mind” at the Carnegie Hall FOLLIES concert last summer (so sorry if you couldn’t secure a ticket…💅🏼) was spectacular and an evening highlight. Her classic interpretation was stunning and I also loved what she was wearing.
by Anonymous | reply 173 | June 26, 2025 7:53 PM |
How does one find out if Audra is in the show tonight?
by Anonymous | reply 174 | June 26, 2025 8:15 PM |
She will be on tonight, R174.
by Anonymous | reply 175 | June 26, 2025 8:19 PM |
One tosses a coin and takes one's chances, R174.
by Anonymous | reply 176 | June 26, 2025 8:20 PM |
Jimmy Award winner Andrew Barth Feldman and his girlfriend Helen J. Shen (and according to DL, you know what that means), perform It Only Takes a Moment from the Hello, Dolly! concert. A lovely rendition.
by Anonymous | reply 177 | June 26, 2025 8:26 PM |
R174. If you're on Instagram sign up for Tryphena Wade's ROSE ALERTS. She usually sends out an alert a few hours before the performance to let people know she's going on. Or follow understudies org
by Anonymous | reply 178 | June 26, 2025 8:35 PM |
R174 You go to the show expecting her not to be on tonight. Should she appear on stage, you will be pleasantly surprised. Should she not, you won't be disappointed.
by Anonymous | reply 179 | June 26, 2025 8:58 PM |
[quote]The pro-shot of Frozen popped up on Disney Plus a week ago. Having failed to see it during its Broadway run, I’m not surprised it died a quick death. What an absolutely turgid and inept shitshow - and the London production that was filmed is supposed to have been the improved staging.
I saw the London production of FROZEN. While it wasn't as bad as you describe (imho), there was one element that really made the show work for me. We saw the show on a matinee, and the audience was filled with young girls, many of whom were dressed as Anna or Elsa. Sitting next to us were two cute twin girls, about seven years old - one Elsa and one Anna - along with their grandmother. Of course, they performed the whole show, acting and singing along with the cast. No, it wasn't a distraction - it was terrific - and they were completely committed to the story. They loved the show, and we loved them. It reminded me of the joy I felt when I started going to the theater as my Mom's plus one. That's how I will remember Frozen - The Musical.
by Anonymous | reply 180 | June 26, 2025 9:28 PM |
Thanks a bunch, R180, for not only condoning such behavior but actually praising it. Incredible.
by Anonymous | reply 181 | June 26, 2025 9:32 PM |
Why is there a concert version of HELLO DOLLY when it was on Broadway and national tour just a few years ago??
by Anonymous | reply 183 | June 26, 2025 11:35 PM |
R179. I went to Wonderful Town expecting Donna Murphy not to be there. Surprise! Not only did she show up but she gave a very memorable performance. Still one of my favorite evenings in the theatre.
by Anonymous | reply 184 | June 26, 2025 11:56 PM |
Boop closing. Gee what a shock!
by Anonymous | reply 185 | June 27, 2025 12:41 AM |
Mr. Feldman is straight??
by Anonymous | reply 186 | June 27, 2025 2:13 AM |
So was Plattypants in the beginning.
by Anonymous | reply 187 | June 27, 2025 2:18 AM |
Who is Plattypants
by Anonymous | reply 188 | June 27, 2025 2:34 AM |
Saw Purpose tonight. I enjoyed it... a great deal... but...something was missing or off. It felt like the playwright kind of got the comedy/drama balance a little off. I think Appropriate was more successful in this regard (and, overall, a better play.) It was my first time seeing Kara Young. I can see why she's a Tony favorite -- fabulous performance.
by Anonymous | reply 189 | June 27, 2025 6:22 AM |
R177 that's an annoying vibrato happening there - or is it something else?
by Anonymous | reply 190 | June 27, 2025 12:04 PM |
R190, are you referring to him or her -- or both? Helen J Shen did not sing very well in this concert, although she did nail a pretty good high note.
by Anonymous | reply 191 | June 27, 2025 12:56 PM |
Helen Shen is an uneven performer, but because she’s a minority and likeable, everyone was convinced she was snubbed for a Tony nomination.
by Anonymous | reply 192 | June 27, 2025 1:15 PM |
R189, “Purpose” is very funny and satisfying but much of the exposition is spouted to the audience by one character rather than dramatized. “Appropriate” had a much more provocative idea then did nothing with it as the whole family squabble descended to sitcom level.
Branden Jacob-Jenkins is a promising playwright of the old-school, well-constructed play that was a staple on Broadway in the last century. But so far he’s pretty lazy, cutting corners and incapable of properly ending his plays (he was very lucky that the theatrical pyrotechnics at the end of “Appropriate” did his work for him, “Purpose” is too long and could have ended in three places).
I don’t think it helps his development as a playwright that he’s already been Tony-ed and Pulitzer-ed for the sort of Neil Simonesque stuff no one will want to revive in 15 years. He’s good but not THAT good, and now he may feel he doesn’t have to be, let alone get better.
by Anonymous | reply 193 | June 27, 2025 1:18 PM |
I hated Appropriate, found it wildly over-rated (including Sarah Paulson's performance), and thus have no interest in seeing Purpose.
by Anonymous | reply 194 | June 27, 2025 1:22 PM |
Jacob-Jenkins will no doubt soon be scooped up by TV (where he belongs) and we won't have to deal with him.
by Anonymous | reply 195 | June 27, 2025 1:24 PM |
[quote]Branden Jacob-Jenkins is a promising playwright of the old-school, well-constructed play that was a staple on Broadway in the last century. But so far he’s pretty lazy, cutting corners and incapable of properly ending his plays (he was very lucky that the theatrical pyrotechnics at the end of “Appropriate” did his work for him, “Purpose” is too long and could have ended in three places).
Agreed, 100 percent.
[quote]I don’t think it helps his development as a playwright that he’s already been Tony-ed and Pulitzer-ed for the sort of Neil Simonesque stuff no one will want to revive in 15 years. He’s good but not THAT good, and now he may feel he doesn’t have to be, let alone get better.
Also, because he has already had such great success, it's highly unlikely that any producer will ever suggest he work with a dramaturg to help refine and edit his plays. And it's too bad, because I think that would really help.
by Anonymous | reply 196 | June 27, 2025 1:33 PM |
Appropriate” had a much more provocative idea…
Fun n’ games with Klan stuff. Was that it?
by Anonymous | reply 197 | June 27, 2025 1:51 PM |
I think An Octoroon is easily one of the best plays by an American writer of the last 25 years. But as for everything Branden Jacobs Jenkins has written since, R193 hits the nail on the head.
Same goes for Anne Washburn. Nothing since Mr Burns comes close to being as brilliant or theatrically bold.
by Anonymous | reply 198 | June 27, 2025 4:15 PM |
R193 - Fair assessment, though I think I have a... warmer regard for his work than you do. Neil Simon will always be in the pantheon of great commercial comic playwrights, but I think Jacob-Jenkins is a far more interesting writer. I 100% agree that Purpose was too long and, like you, it seems, I'm not too fond of writing that is overly reliant upon exposition. What's odd is... he didn't NEED all of that exposition... literally half of what the main character told us could have easily been revealed through dialogue. I found its high points so enjoyable, though, that I still thoroughly enjoyed the evening. It was also nice to see a very full house with a very diverse (generationally, ethnically) and appreciative audience... all for a non-musical play without (with all due respect to Mrs. Jackson) any A-list stars.
Appropriate was more successful for me. I happened to see Sarah Paulson's understudy who was absolutely incredible. I'd have sworn she'd been giving that performance 8/times a week.
by Anonymous | reply 199 | June 27, 2025 6:09 PM |
I agree about An Octoroon...it's a powerful piece of theater.
I don't agree about "Mr. Burns". It was "clever" but it was also rather dumb because it didn't make sense that after the "Incident" that there would NEVER be any way to watch The Simpsons. If society collapsed, there are ways to get electricity back up and running and VCRs and DVD players.
She should have set the play in the mid 60s and had it be "Mr. Mertz..." and about recreating "I Love Lucy". Technology was less advanced and there weren't VHS/DVD copies of shows just laying around to be eventually played.
by Anonymous | reply 200 | June 27, 2025 8:22 PM |
I was reading on another forum that 'MJ' is scheduled to be announcing a closing date in the next few weeks, and the closing date will be right after the New Year. Not sure how true this is (there was a bit of a debate on whether it's the B'way production or the West End).
The B'way show opened February 1, 2022. Currently, it has tickets available through January 4, 2026.The B'way show continues to do well at the box office, pulling in over $1M each week (most recent grosses show it sold at 91% capacity). The show recouped its entire initial investment within fifteen months (mid-May, 2023).
The West End show opened March 6, 2024. Currently, it has tickets available through March, 2026. This production has yet to recoup its investment.
by Anonymous | reply 201 | June 27, 2025 8:52 PM |
Billy Porter IS Paula in an updated "The Goodbye Gurrrl."
by Anonymous | reply 202 | June 27, 2025 9:32 PM |
Wonder why they're closing MJ when it's still profiting.
by Anonymous | reply 203 | June 27, 2025 11:45 PM |
THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 1976, a revival of "Pal Joey" opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre.
by Anonymous | reply 204 | June 28, 2025 12:07 AM |
I love you, R205.
by Anonymous | reply 206 | June 28, 2025 12:11 AM |
R118, it may be the gummy, but your post made me laugh so loud that my cat gave me a dirty(er) look.
by Anonymous | reply 207 | June 28, 2025 12:19 AM |
[quote]r204 THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 1976, a revival of "Pal Joey" opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre.
Featuring Marilu Henner in the chorus.
by Anonymous | reply 209 | June 28, 2025 12:28 AM |
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Masquerade’ Announces Preview Dates And A Cast Including Two Former Broadway Phantoms:
by Anonymous | reply 210 | June 28, 2025 12:31 AM |
If it's true that MJ is going to close, that means Six will be the last show standing from the '21-'22 season. & Juliet is the only one standing from '22-'23. There's three still hanging on from '23-'24: The Great Gatsby, Hell's Kitchen, and The Outsiders.
by Anonymous | reply 211 | June 28, 2025 12:40 AM |
Like cockroaches.
by Anonymous | reply 212 | June 28, 2025 12:47 AM |
Saw Maybe Happy Ending. The production design made it hard not to think of the Company revival (or Curious Incident, for that matter.) Very charming. A touch twee for me, but I'm also not a die-hard romantic. Both leads were fantastic. Something about holding that robotic form must be... exhausting. Impressive that Darren Criss has been doing that 8 times a week since the Fall!
by Anonymous | reply 213 | June 28, 2025 1:45 AM |
In Maybe Happy Ending why doesn't the girl hold the same robotic form Criss does?
by Anonymous | reply 214 | June 28, 2025 1:55 AM |
Because she’s a more advanced version of a helpbot. Pay attention.
by Anonymous | reply 215 | June 28, 2025 2:02 AM |
Yikes! Dixie Carter's rendition of Zip! was just awful. So strident and she can't hit the notes.
Bebe's version OTOH is divine.
IIRC they gave Martha Plimpton, who played Gladys Bumps in the rather dismal Joe Mantello/Stockard Channing Roundabout revival the song and cut the reporter character who originally sang it. I think Plimpton did pretty well with it but I can't remember how they rationalized her character singing it. I do wonder why the song wasn't better incorporated into the original show.
by Anonymous | reply 216 | June 28, 2025 2:46 AM |
R204, that was meant to star Edward Villela until it was discovered he had zero singing talent. Christopher Chadman got the lead and no question why it flopped.
by Anonymous | reply 217 | June 28, 2025 2:47 AM |
I want to say that "Zip" was part of Gladys' act in the Roundabout version of Pal Joey, R216.
Any feelings about the London version? The singer is Darlene Johnson, who went on to play Janet's mom in Shock Treatment.
by Anonymous | reply 218 | June 28, 2025 3:01 AM |
Is Eileen Heckart's version of Zip! out there in the ether? Now that I'd like to hear. She played Melba opposite Bob Fosse.
by Anonymous | reply 219 | June 28, 2025 3:05 AM |
When it comes down to it, Elaine owns the damn song.
by Anonymous | reply 220 | June 28, 2025 3:11 AM |
Well, they're selling tickets through January so maybe ticket sales have started lagging significantly.
by Anonymous | reply 221 | June 28, 2025 3:37 AM |
R217. Don't forget me!!!!
by Anonymous | reply 222 | June 28, 2025 4:24 AM |
[quote]What with Hercules' disappointing London reviews and the previous collapse of Frozen I think Disney's days of blockbuster musicals are over.
Regarding Frozen, the collapse of that show is quite amazing considering that everyone in the world, including Disney, assumed all they had to do was put some version of the movie onstage and it would be a spectacular, long-running success even if the product was no better than mediocre. That the show was SO poorly received and did so relatively poorly at the box office is a real testament to just how incredibly awful it was, from the casting to the rewriting to the song additions, etc., etc., etc.
by Anonymous | reply 224 | June 28, 2025 12:43 PM |
I saw Frozen on Bway. It was fine, just nothing original. They just took the movie version and stuck it on stage
by Anonymous | reply 225 | June 28, 2025 3:08 PM |
IIRC, didn't 'FROZEN' start the trend of over-priced ticketing ? I remember the most complaints on the theater forums was that families who wanted to go to the show were not going to pay hundreds of dollars per ticket - especially a family of four or more. Most families waited for discount ticketing if they could get them, but for a long time, Disney was reluctant to discount the tickets. So the tourist families were opting for the more reasonably priced 'Aladdin' and 'Lion King' instead. And instead of offering more discounted ticketing, Disney never reopened the show after the pandemic.
by Anonymous | reply 227 | June 28, 2025 4:38 PM |
[quote]I saw Frozen on Bway. It was fine, just nothing original. They just took the movie version and stuck it on stage
In my opinion, it was far worse than "fine." Again, I blame poor casting, ill-advised changes to the score and script, and awful direction.
by Anonymous | reply 229 | June 28, 2025 5:31 PM |
The main point of the show Frozen was the large store in the theater lobby selling Frozen merchandise
by Anonymous | reply 230 | June 28, 2025 6:29 PM |
I think the main problem with Frozen is the fact that it's Frozen...a really shitty, contrived piece of shit with a stupid snowman characer, one big (and annoying) song, and a total lack of any kind of originality or genuine emotion. It's a show that was embraced by 3 year olds. Who have rather basic (terrible) taste.
by Anonymous | reply 232 | June 28, 2025 8:07 PM |
R231. Jen. Call us.
by Anonymous | reply 233 | June 28, 2025 9:09 PM |
Is Jen a Sally or a Phyllis?
by Anonymous | reply 234 | June 28, 2025 9:22 PM |
And is she too old for "They're Playing Our Song"?
by Anonymous | reply 235 | June 28, 2025 9:24 PM |
News flash: TPOS is NEVER going to have a Broadway revival.
by Anonymous | reply 236 | June 28, 2025 9:28 PM |
Jennifer Aniston is Mame!
by Anonymous | reply 237 | June 28, 2025 9:49 PM |
Aniston is the right age to play 'Mama Rose'. Maybe she can pitch a new B'way revival when the current revival is over ?
by Anonymous | reply 238 | June 28, 2025 9:49 PM |
She has to copy everything I do. She's obsessed with me.
by Anonymous | reply 239 | June 28, 2025 9:52 PM |
R238, I’m sure the “I hate Audra” troll will just love Aniston’s pauses and use of head voice
by Anonymous | reply 240 | June 28, 2025 9:53 PM |
Saw Glengarry Glen Ross. It was... good, fine, unremarkable. That first act is over in a blink. Silly to have an intermission after just 40 mins.
by Anonymous | reply 241 | June 28, 2025 10:00 PM |
Jennifer Aniston IS The Star Spangled They/Them!
by Anonymous | reply 242 | June 28, 2025 10:07 PM |
Jennifer would be good as Mona in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
by Anonymous | reply 243 | June 28, 2025 11:50 PM |
Why they didn't choose Jennifer over Nicole in the current 'SB' revival will remain a mystery to us all, forever. To think they could've probably gotten Brad Pitt to play 'Joe' and Hugh Jackman as Max.
by Anonymous | reply 244 | June 29, 2025 12:15 AM |
[quote]Saw Glengarry Glen Ross. It was... good, fine, unremarkable. That first act is over in a blink. Silly to have an intermission after just 40 mins.
Considering the average age for a Glengarry Glen Ross audience is about 70, ya get the toliets flowing early.
by Anonymous | reply 245 | June 29, 2025 12:48 AM |
Jen would be good in a revival of Same Time Next Year. But who for the Charles Grodin/Alan Alda role?
by Anonymous | reply 246 | June 29, 2025 3:01 AM |
[quote]But who for the Charles Grodin/Alan Alda role?
One of the ever-reliable 'go to' actors for Broadway:
Nathan Lane
Matthew Broderick
David Hyde Pierce
by Anonymous | reply 247 | June 29, 2025 3:17 AM |
[quote]Considering the average age for a Glengarry Glen Ross audience is about 70, ya get the toliets flowing early.
True! Though, wasn't so much the case at the performance I caught. I was actually struck by how young a good deal of the audience was. I suppose having the stars of Succession and Better Caul Saul will do that.
by Anonymous | reply 248 | June 29, 2025 3:20 AM |
I suspect “Same Time, Next Year” wouldn’t age very well.
by Anonymous | reply 249 | June 29, 2025 4:51 AM |
They need to try an edgier but still hilarious Lesbianic reboot with Jen and Courteney Cox.
by Anonymous | reply 250 | June 29, 2025 5:08 AM |
[quote]Angelina Jolie and daughter Vivienne stun at Tony Awards
Will clickbait sites never find another verb to replace "stun"?
by Anonymous | reply 251 | June 29, 2025 7:42 AM |
Can you come up with a better double-edged word, r251?
by Anonymous | reply 252 | June 29, 2025 7:45 AM |
I read that THE BODYGUARD might finally come to Broadway?? Good Lord, why? I saw it on tour (a friend dragged me) in 2018 and it remains the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen outside of community theater. Deborah Cox and Judson Mills were fine, but the show is terrible. The fraus around me loved it though, so I guess that’s why it’s still going. I was laughing at many parts that weren’t supposed to be funny and my friend kept poking me in the ribs to shut me up.
by Anonymous | reply 253 | June 29, 2025 9:40 AM |
Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer in Same Time, Next Year. Boom. Money in the bank.
by Anonymous | reply 254 | June 29, 2025 11:31 AM |
[Quote] Will clickbait sites never find another verb to replace "stun"?
Another one they overuse is “slammed”
by Anonymous | reply 255 | June 29, 2025 11:47 AM |
Audra is starting her vacation a day early. Tryphena is on today.
by Anonymous | reply 256 | June 29, 2025 2:00 PM |
Tryphena sounds like the name of a medication.
by Anonymous | reply 257 | June 29, 2025 2:15 PM |
I had a dream.
by Anonymous | reply 258 | June 29, 2025 2:50 PM |
R251. I agree. I guess they used "Angelina Jolie and daughter Vivienne break their silence at Tony Awards" in a previous post.
by Anonymous | reply 259 | June 29, 2025 3:16 PM |
Aniston and Jonathan Groff in "Talley's Folly".
by Anonymous | reply 260 | June 29, 2025 3:47 PM |
Jennifer Aniston
IN
Death of a Saleswoman!
by Anonymous | reply 261 | June 29, 2025 3:59 PM |
Jennifer Aniston in Oh! Calcutta!
by Anonymous | reply 262 | June 29, 2025 4:00 PM |
Jennifer Aniston IS Jean Smart in Call Me Jean, the one-woman play about the making of Call Me Izzy.
by Anonymous | reply 263 | June 29, 2025 4:03 PM |
MJ on Broadway isn't going anywhere. It's still very profitable.
by Anonymous | reply 264 | June 29, 2025 5:07 PM |
Can Miss Aniston carry a tune?
by Anonymous | reply 265 | June 29, 2025 5:21 PM |
As a grand actress of yore, she should do something like The Constant Wife, A Matter of Gravity or...40 Carats.
by Anonymous | reply 266 | June 29, 2025 5:25 PM |
[quote]I wonder if anyone at Disney's theatrical branch has ever dared to suggest a full-length stage version of Pocahontas. Or Mulan.
I think POCAHONTAS could work if they made the first movie Act I (English settlers led by Governor Ratcliffe arrive in Virginia and found Jamestown, John Smith secretly meets with Pocahontas who teaches him about the New World, she saves his life when their people go to war and he's captured by the Powhatans who planned to execute him, but he gets accidentally shot by Ratcliffe in the melee and returns to England for medical care).
NOTE: The real John Smith was badly burned by a gunpowder explosion and was sent back to England for medical assistance, never to return to Virginia.
And the sequel JOURNEY TO A NEW WORLD would be Act II (Pocahontas is misinformed that John Smith died en route back to England, a new settler John Rolfe arrives in Jamestown and romances Pocahontas, they get married and depart on a goodwill tour to England where she's treated like visiting royalty by King James and is reunited with John Smith before heading back to Virginia).
NOTE: The real Pocahontas and Smith were happily reunited in London, but she never made it back to Virginia, because she took ill (possibly tuberculosis) as she and Rolfe were getting ready to return (with their baby son Thomas, who does not appear in the movie). She died suddenly and was buried in England.
by Anonymous | reply 267 | June 29, 2025 5:38 PM |
R257
Does it come with an applicator?
by Anonymous | reply 268 | June 29, 2025 5:40 PM |
I would love to see a revival of 40 Carats. It's a chestnut but very funny.
by Anonymous | reply 269 | June 29, 2025 5:43 PM |
Starring Cole Escola!
by Anonymous | reply 270 | June 29, 2025 6:02 PM |
Who looks good enough in bra and panties to play the Blythe Danner/Gokdie Hawn rolein a revival of Butterflies Are Free? And please don’t say Cole Escola.
by Anonymous | reply 271 | June 29, 2025 6:27 PM |
Sydney Sweeney?
by Anonymous | reply 272 | June 29, 2025 6:28 PM |
Miss Darren Criss
by Anonymous | reply 273 | June 29, 2025 6:30 PM |
Bingo, R272. Yes. The modern day version of Nancy Allen would be perfect. Ditziness with a touch of cuntiness.
by Anonymous | reply 274 | June 29, 2025 6:31 PM |
R272, are you being serious? I also think it could be a great idea. The sign of a true actor is one who can be successful on state. Sweeney has shown evidence she can be the real thing, that she's more than just her breast size.
If she were willing, and could pull it off (so to speak), it would give her tremendous credibility (even if she tried and failed she'd get points for effort). and I think the box-office would definitely be there.
Who for the Eileen Heckart part? Patti? Betty? Hey, what about Audra? They could cast a young black kid in the Edward Albert, Jr part and it could add a whole new dimension.
by Anonymous | reply 275 | June 29, 2025 7:00 PM |
R275, Correction: on stage. (Obviously)
by Anonymous | reply 276 | June 29, 2025 7:00 PM |
I was being serious, yes. And even if she fails, "Sydney Sweeney in her underwear" is bound to sell some tickets.
by Anonymous | reply 277 | June 29, 2025 7:15 PM |
Has there ever been a decent film or miniseries about Pocahontas, other than the Disney cartoon? Such a fascinating story.
by Anonymous | reply 278 | June 29, 2025 7:23 PM |
[quote]They could cast a young black kid in the Edward Albert, Jr part and it could add a whole new dimension.
Well, if nothing else, it would give a whole new meaning to "Little Donnie Dark".
by Anonymous | reply 279 | June 29, 2025 7:27 PM |
RIP:
JOHN CONKLIN master theatre and opera set & costume designer, mentor and teacher to multi-generations of theatre artists
MARK BROKAW theatre director, How I Learned to Drive, As Bees in Honey Drown, Cry Baby, Lobby Hero, The Dying Gaul
PAUL LIBIN long-time theatre manager and producer of Circle-in-the-Square
A tough week for the NY theatre community.
by Anonymous | reply 280 | June 29, 2025 7:29 PM |
The Baby Boom turns eighty in six months. Familiar names are going to start dropping like flies over the next decade.
by Anonymous | reply 281 | June 29, 2025 7:33 PM |
Alison Janney for Mrs Baker in Butterflies Are Free.
by Anonymous | reply 282 | June 29, 2025 7:44 PM |
R282, she'd be great in that part.
by Anonymous | reply 283 | June 29, 2025 7:55 PM |
Butterflies Are Free? 40 Carats? How about Time Out For Ginger?
by Anonymous | reply 284 | June 29, 2025 8:00 PM |
[quote]Has there ever been a decent film or miniseries about Pocahontas, other than the Disney cartoon? Such a fascinating story.
There's "The New World" (2005) by Terrence Malick starring Q'orianka Kilcher as Pocahontas, Colin Farrell as John Smith, Christian Bale as John Rolfe, August Schellenberg as Chief Powhatan, Jonathan Pryce as King James, and Christopher Plummer as Captain Newport (aka Ratcliffe in the Disney film).
by Anonymous | reply 285 | June 29, 2025 8:11 PM |
Betty Buckley's mother passed away. She seemed like a lovely woman. RIP
by Anonymous | reply 286 | June 29, 2025 8:31 PM |
Saoirse Ronan iin Any Wednesday, please!
by Anonymous | reply 287 | June 29, 2025 8:34 PM |
The cast of FRIENDS in a revival of Neil Simon’s RUMORS!
Well, minus Matthew Perry..
by Anonymous | reply 288 | June 29, 2025 8:43 PM |
Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick in Mary, Mary.
by Anonymous | reply 289 | June 29, 2025 8:44 PM |
Beanie Feldstein in There's a Them In My Soup.
by Anonymous | reply 290 | June 29, 2025 8:45 PM |
The cast of Seinfeld in Arthur Miller's The Price!
by Anonymous | reply 291 | June 29, 2025 8:47 PM |
Olivia Colman and the buck toothed chick from The White Lotus in The Killing of Sister George!
by Anonymous | reply 292 | June 29, 2025 9:02 PM |
I'd watch that, r292.
by Anonymous | reply 293 | June 29, 2025 9:04 PM |
[quote]Betty Buckley's mother passed away. She seemed like a lovely woman. RIP
WOW! She turned 99 this past November 1. I remember an interview with Buckley years ago on 'CBS Sunday Morning' which took place at her mother's home, and her mother chatted for a few minutes with the interviewer. She seemed rather pleased with her daughter's success (I think BB was just starting the tour of 'Hello Dolly'). She came across as a real 'Southern woman'.
by Anonymous | reply 294 | June 29, 2025 9:37 PM |
I feel bad for Betty Lynn. She’s 77 and her mom was 99. It would be hard to suddenly no longer have a person in your life after having them for 77 years.
by Anonymous | reply 295 | June 29, 2025 9:46 PM |
What's going to be shocking is the Great Die Off for all those even older stars born in the 30s/early 40s who become stars in the 60s/70s. A rather huge number of them are still alive:
Shirley MacLaine
Warren Beatty
Jane Fonda
Robert Redford
Jack Nicholson
Julie Christie
Vanessa Redgrave
Michael Caine
Barbra Streisand
Catherine Deneuve
Faye Dunaway
Dustin Hoffman
Al Pacino
by Anonymous | reply 296 | June 29, 2025 10:08 PM |
You can no more quickly destroy the reputations of most of these former hits than to remount them. Gingerbread Lady? Forty Carats? Mary Mary? Killing of Sister George? Let them lie.
by Anonymous | reply 298 | June 29, 2025 10:25 PM |
The moon is blue, r298.
by Anonymous | reply 299 | June 29, 2025 10:31 PM |
[quote]You can no more quickly destroy the reputations of most of these former hits than to remount them. Gingerbread Lady? Forty Carats? Mary Mary? Killing of Sister George? Let them lie.
I've been hoping for a "Cactus Flower" revival.
by Anonymous | reply 300 | June 29, 2025 10:44 PM |
Maggie Smith did Mary Mary in London.
by Anonymous | reply 301 | June 29, 2025 10:49 PM |
Brendad Ickson in "The Madwoman of Century City."
by Anonymous | reply 302 | June 29, 2025 10:50 PM |
Butterflies Are Free with Olivia Coleman as the Mom.
by Anonymous | reply 303 | June 29, 2025 10:53 PM |
What do you think of these clips of Madonna making her Broadway debut in David Mamet's Speed the Plow?
Brooke Shields, Jennifer Beals and Jennifer Grey were there for the opening night.
by Anonymous | reply 305 | June 29, 2025 11:36 PM |
^^^OP, what was that play about? Does Madonna play a cheap whore? They are her best roles.
by Anonymous | reply 306 | June 29, 2025 11:49 PM |
I'm so glad I got to see Madonna in Speed the Plow because now I can honestly say she gave a truly awful performance.
by Anonymous | reply 307 | June 29, 2025 11:54 PM |
Really, I didn't know that-did she play a slut or a woman with no morals. Madonna is really good at playing those roles: Evita, Who's that Girl, Desperately Sucking Susan, A League of their Own, Dick Tracy.And her song "Live to Tell" was awesome in the film "At Close Range". Op, did I miss one?
by Anonymous | reply 308 | June 30, 2025 12:07 AM |
[quote]What do you think of these clips of Madonna making her Broadway debut in David Mamet's Speed the Plow?
Saw the show first row, I'll damed if I can remember how I scored those seats. But she wooden, but glad I saw it.
by Anonymous | reply 309 | June 30, 2025 1:27 AM |
"One Gay More" (Kennedy Center Pride Protest Concert)
by Anonymous | reply 310 | June 30, 2025 2:05 AM |
The Dutch TV show Stars on Stage had on this young lady (who’s apparently a film actress) to perform “Buenos Aires.” I think some if it was OK but she seemed to badly fuck up on her lyrics at one point.
by Anonymous | reply 312 | June 30, 2025 2:41 AM |
Adam Guettel and Bart Sher's new musical MILLIONS closed tonight at the Alliance in Atlanta. Is it on its way to Broadway?
by Anonymous | reply 314 | June 30, 2025 3:02 AM |
Saw the closing performance of Old Friends. It was marginally better than the original gala broadcast in some ways (likely because there weren't quite as many hammy Brits insisting on turning everything into a Pantomime performance.)
Did we really need this? No... but it was a pleasure hearing that very fine orchestra play so many incredible Sondheim songs (God, they packed them in... you definitely get your money's worth!)
Bernadette was in decent voice (by her current standards) and, I have to admit, since I was too young to have seen her Dot in person, it was undeniably touching seeing a tiny bit of that iconic performance live on a Broadway stage. By the way, did Bernie have a reduction? She didn't look as... buxom as I'm a accustomed to seeing.
Lea Salonga's voice remains powerful. I didn't find her to be a very... credible actress, though. Miss Saigon was a childhood favorite, so it was a treat to see her for the first time, but, with Sondheim she just didn't have... the layers.
Lea needs to sue the costume designer. They had her in deeply unflattering frocks all night. Sure, she looks like she's been having a little extra lumpia and, yeah, the 14 year old boy's haircut isn't doing her any favors, but she's still a lovely woman. It's weird to me that she looked her best in her Mrs. Lovett getup.
Beth Leavel's Ladies Who Lunch was almost silly in its hamminess (though it improved by the last quarter of the song.) Bonnie Milligan gave a very... credible I'm Still Here... though she sang some lyrics I'd never heard before. Did they change/augment the lyrics for the London Follies? Just an assumption since this production originated in London.
Forgot to save my Playbill, but the dude who played the Wolf was hot! (Good voice, too..)
by Anonymous | reply 315 | June 30, 2025 4:04 AM |
What's with all those ellipses, R315? Very annoying.
by Anonymous | reply 316 | June 30, 2025 4:33 AM |
They used some of the new lyrics added in Postcards from the Edge in I'm Still Here.
by Anonymous | reply 317 | June 30, 2025 5:34 AM |
R311 I enjoyed the clip, but if ever a costume begged for a little VPL to spice it up...
And I didn't know that Herculese was a Gay Gym Bunny.
by Anonymous | reply 318 | June 30, 2025 5:42 AM |
Does Montego Glover get to rehearse with the full cast of Gypsy?
by Anonymous | reply 319 | June 30, 2025 6:39 AM |
R315: "Bonnie Milligan gave a very... credible I'm Still Here..."
Oh, dear.
by Anonymous | reply 320 | June 30, 2025 9:14 AM |
R299 I like blue
by Anonymous | reply 321 | June 30, 2025 10:45 AM |
Wasn't it Bonnie Langford? Ms. Miilligan was not in the show.
Too bad you missed Joanna Riding's I'm Still Here. It was superb.
The Wolf was Jacob Dickey.
by Anonymous | reply 322 | June 30, 2025 12:08 PM |
I wouldn't blame the costume designer for Lea's look. To me it just seems like she wants to be comfortable and has strict parameters of what she will wear. Same for her practical hair-do. I saw the show in London, LOVED it, and thought she was one of the best things about it.
by Anonymous | reply 323 | June 30, 2025 1:28 PM |
Lea’s Madame Rose outfit is the best of her costumes. Her finale dress was what was so awful. I think she looks good in a black dress…just not that one!
by Anonymous | reply 324 | June 30, 2025 2:49 PM |
Salonga is a game girl. Perhaps the short hair makes it easier for her to wear wigs when doing a role. But when she appears on stage with hershort hair, she looks dyke-y, fat and middle-aged. And as good as she was in the show, it’s a fact that she lacks the glamor, magnetism and presence of Bernadette Peters, because the audience brings their memories of her long career to the theater with them. And Bernadette dresses and acts the part while never seeming imperious.
Salonga has “Miss Saigon” and what else? Who considers her an indelible star (or a box office one) based on her starring roles on stage? The decision to give her billing equal to Bernadette in divadom was kind and fashionably inclusive, but ultimately unconvincing once you actually saw the show.
by Anonymous | reply 325 | June 30, 2025 3:27 PM |
R325, you seem to be largely unfamiliar with Lea Salonga's career, but you might want to research her work as a voice artist for animated films, and then you might begin to understand why she's considered a star.
by Anonymous | reply 326 | June 30, 2025 3:56 PM |
Glamour!
by Anonymous | reply 327 | June 30, 2025 3:58 PM |
R326, what about Jodi Benson (The Little Mermaid) and Paige O’Hara? Neither became “stars.”
by Anonymous | reply 328 | June 30, 2025 4:05 PM |
Has anyone had any luck purchasing tickets online to the A Chorus Line 50th Anniversary Celebration? The online option is a 404 error message and none of the phone numbers listed will fucking answer.
“Why is no one ready?”
by Anonymous | reply 329 | June 30, 2025 4:08 PM |
R325 this was actuary just a cut and paste of Bernadette’s bio in the playbill!
by Anonymous | reply 330 | June 30, 2025 4:26 PM |
I skipped Old Friends because I’m kind of sick of Sondheim reviews
How about some reviews of all the other great Bway teams?
by Anonymous | reply 331 | June 30, 2025 4:37 PM |
[quote]r331 = I'm kind of sick of Sondheim reviews
Oh dear.
by Anonymous | reply 332 | June 30, 2025 4:39 PM |
[QUOTE] Oh dear.
Oh, DEAR.
by Anonymous | reply 333 | June 30, 2025 4:41 PM |
Saw a production of Butterflies are Free a few years back and the audience ate it up. It's ripe for an all-star Broadway revival, and like Plaza Suite, the critics would dismiss the writing while the audience buys tickets like mad and laughs it up and has a great time. As long as they get the casting right it would work. Even Jill's icky director friend, Ralph, can be a good role.
There's just a few lines that might need a gentle rewrite and of course the play can be cut to be shorter.
Once the show was back, Mrs. Baker is the kind of diva role where the production could even do replacements to lengthen the run. It's just two scenes, but she makes an impact. It would have to be a huge star that we don't see on Broadway all the time, to be enough of a draw. Blythe Danner as Mrs. Baker is just lazy casting. In this day and age, would audiences expect Don to be played by someone low vision/legally blind? To put a twist on it, Jill could absolutely be played by a person of color, and Don might not realize since he can only hear her, but seeing her sets Mrs. Baker off.
Mary, Mary: Westport Country Playhouse did a reading of it maybe 10 years ago in their Script in Hand series. It played like gangbusters.
Cactus Flower had an off-Broadway revival 15 years ago or so that was the brainchild of its female star, who was miscast. It was woefully directed, the set took forever to change in that "transferred from a regional theatre" kind of way with everything manually pulling out or folding up, and it was not very well-done all around.
Same Time Next Year with the two stars of Friends, or the remaining five stars of Friends in Rumors or The Dinner Party, is a wonderful idea. It's a shame they couldn't all be shoehorned into Noises Off. Aniston and Schwimmer might still be able to pull off Bell, Book and Candle too and to have the production queered up (in the other three roles) would give it modern snap.
Star-Spangled Girl will always be a dire script. The craft is there but it's uninspired and the resolution is forced and it's not that funny. Which is too bad because a genuinely funny and insightful comedy about a conservative person and a liberal person who start out hating each other and end up loving each other and working together might be interesting for right now.
Better would be a cut and slightly revised Come Blow Your Horn, which Sally Struthers and Hal Linden did recently. Yes, they're decades older than those roles are supposed to be, but apparently so hilarious the audience just didn't care.
Now I'm going to re-read Forty Carats and There's a Girl in My Soup. The Moon is Blue is cute but slight, and like Sunday in New York, they're fighting over a virgin. Any Wednesday is more than a little smarmy. Would anyone like the middle-drawer A Matter of Gravity, In Praise of Love, Tchin-Tchin if they weren't true hits the first time around?
But like The Boys in the Band revival a while back, The Killing of Sister George: Now with Real Celesbians! is a great idea. But they'd have to beat that revival of Catfish Cove or whatever it's called, because that's their gimmick too.
It will be interesting to see what Roundabout does with the now public domain Fallen Angels.
The main thing to keep sight of is that nearly all these titles were audience pleasing bonafide commercial hits that were everywhere for a decade or two: Broadway, touring, stock, amateur. The professional productions were mostly built around the personal appearance of stars the audience wants to see live on stage. These shows just work. They weren't developed for ten years in a regional theatre. They don't make the audience feel bad about themselves, or come to a "down" ending. They're not about society's ills so that you feel like you've just paid to hear a treatise. They brought people together in the theatre and they made money.
by Anonymous | reply 334 | June 30, 2025 4:44 PM |
Actually, r333, it's a phrase. No comma needed.
by Anonymous | reply 335 | June 30, 2025 4:48 PM |
I misread that as The DONNER Party. Likely more fun at the theater than what you’ve suggested.
by Anonymous | reply 336 | June 30, 2025 4:48 PM |
R335 Not on DL, it isn’t.
by Anonymous | reply 337 | June 30, 2025 4:49 PM |
Tell yourself whatever you need to, r337.
by Anonymous | reply 338 | June 30, 2025 4:51 PM |
[QUOTE] Tell yourself whatever you need to, [R337].
That wasn’t me, bitch.
And “it’s an expression so it doesn’t need proper punctuation” is something you made up.
by Anonymous | reply 339 | June 30, 2025 5:07 PM |
[quote] I feel bad for Betty Lynn. She’s 77 and her mom was 99. It would be hard to suddenly no longer have a person in your life after having them for 77 years.
It must be terrible to be orphaned at 77.
by Anonymous | reply 340 | June 30, 2025 5:19 PM |
[quote][R325], you seem to be largely unfamiliar with Lea Salonga's career, but you might want to research her work as a voice artist for animated films, and then you might begin to understand why she's considered a star.
[quote][R326], what about Jodi Benson (The Little Mermaid) and Paige O’Hara? Neither became “stars."
Lea was only the singing voice of 'Jasmine' and 'Mulan'; Linda Larkin and Ming-Na Wen provided the speaking voices, respectively.
Whereas Jodi Benson ('Ariel') and Paige O'Hara ('Belle') did both speaking/singing voices for their characters.
by Anonymous | reply 341 | June 30, 2025 5:38 PM |
“R325]], you seem to be largely unfamiliar with Lea Salonga's career, but you might want to research her work as a voice artist for animated films, and then you might begin to understand why she's considered a star.”
R325 Are you perhaps joking? Are you equating doing the singing for a couple of animated characters with carrying any number of Broadway musicals — not to mention performing a killer 1930s musical tribute number in “Pennies From Heaven”?
You really are stretching the definition of “star” if you are serious. I hope for your sake you are not. Because wishing doesn ‘t make it so. And you need to do your homework.
by Anonymous | reply 342 | June 30, 2025 5:56 PM |
I think Any Wednesday could work with an all male cast. Aging executive keeps young, sexy man on the side and his bitchy husband finds out.
by Anonymous | reply 343 | June 30, 2025 6:42 PM |
It would be nearly impossible to pull off, of course, but I'd love to see R334's list of plays (well, some of them...) done on Broadway a la the Kenley Players circuit. A couple of weeks of rehearsal, performances for, say, two weeks, while another show rehearses and then replaces the previous show. Throw in a couple of rarely done musicals, too -- I don't know, Kismet, I Love My Wife, Seesaw, Hollywood/Ukraine, Brigadoon. It could be done with a repertory cast and some stars or new casts for every show.
Kenley did it every summer for years, and the shows had to travel, too. (The Kenley circuit could also make a fantastic limited series for TV, as long as Ryan Murphy kept his grubby hands off it.)
by Anonymous | reply 344 | June 30, 2025 7:05 PM |
[quote][R326], what about Jodi Benson (The Little Mermaid) and Paige O’Hara? Neither became “stars.”
True, but what's your point? Lea Salonga is definitely considered a star, if not at the same level of Bernadette Peters, and she is a star based on her performance in MISS SAIGON as well as her voice work in animated films that are very popular with children and families. That's true regardless of the level of stardom of Jodi Benson and Paige O'Hara.
by Anonymous | reply 345 | June 30, 2025 7:08 PM |
Learn to read, R342. I made no statement to the effect that Lea Salonga's stardom is equivalent to that of Bernadette Peters, and of course it isn't. I was making the point that Lea Salonga is considered a star in her own right and with her own public, and I'm sticking to that.
Also, you posted in response to the wrong person -- I am R326, not R325.
by Anonymous | reply 346 | June 30, 2025 7:18 PM |
[quote]Lea was only the singing voice of 'Jasmine' and 'Mulan'; Linda Larkin and Ming-Na Wen provided the speaking voices, respectively.
I'm aware of that, but I still think Lea Salonga can be properly considered a star, and that her stardom is based largely on her singing in those two movies, plus of course MISS SAIGON.
by Anonymous | reply 347 | June 30, 2025 7:20 PM |
[quote]The Kenley circuit could also make a fantastic limited series for TV, as long as Ryan Murphy kept his grubby hands off it.
Who else's grubby hands could get it made?
by Anonymous | reply 348 | June 30, 2025 7:20 PM |
[quote]Mary, Mary: Westport Country Playhouse did a reading of it maybe 10 years ago in their Script in Hand series. It played like gangbusters.
Westport also did a reading of BUTTERFLIES ARE FREE some years ago with Jonathan Groff as Don, Betty Gilpin as Jill, Blythe Danner as Mrs. Baker, and Andrew Grusetskie as Ralph. The reading was hosted by Keir Dullea, and the play held up very well, indeed.
by Anonymous | reply 349 | June 30, 2025 7:24 PM |
The exquisite Keir Dullea was on TCM this morning in The Fox. Christ, he was gorgeous. Cabaret, Strangers on a Train, and Some Like It Hot following.
by Anonymous | reply 350 | June 30, 2025 7:42 PM |
[quote]It played like gangbusters
But would it be BOFFO at the BO?
by Anonymous | reply 351 | June 30, 2025 8:07 PM |
Keir Dullea, gone tomorrow.
by Anonymous | reply 352 | June 30, 2025 8:33 PM |
Audiences today are much more sophisticated than they were 40-50 years ago. They're not going to accept those yesterday hits, unless there are MAJOR pop culture names.
by Anonymous | reply 353 | June 30, 2025 8:39 PM |
I think audiences were MORE sophisticated 40-50 years ago. The plays we're discussing may be dated but the majority of today's audience would never appreciate their wit and charm.
by Anonymous | reply 354 | June 30, 2025 8:43 PM |
Audiences, especially on Broadway, are much dumber than 40 or 50 years ago. Holding a note three times longer than it is written receives rapturous applause. When I saw Sunset Boulevard, truly theater for people who don’t want to think at all, they went crazy applauding David Thaxton for a long note in The Greatest Star of All. Then he cracked on the next one.
by Anonymous | reply 355 | June 30, 2025 9:22 PM |
[quote] Audiences, especially on Broadway, are much dumber than 40 or 50 years ago. Holding a note three times longer than it is written receives rapturous applause.
Schocking!
by Anonymous | reply 356 | June 30, 2025 10:13 PM |
15 years ago a pre-roided out Zac Efron would have perfect in "Butterflies are Free" and would have been something in those tighty whities.
by Anonymous | reply 357 | June 30, 2025 11:09 PM |
Right R343 and in a similar vein, for someone with a theatre just outside NYC or LA to take a cue from Good Night and Good Luck and make live in front of an audience versions of classic plays with stars, in short regional runs, serve them up once a month as specials, then put them on streaming. Surely it would be cheaper than making a typical Hallmark movie. The writing would be better and it would get the titles back in circulation again.
The cable networks did this in their early days with Barefoot in the Park, Bus Stop, The Rainmaker, Picnic, Plaza Suite, Vanities, and a bunch of others.
There's a much shorter cut of this Hasty Heart with Gregory Harrison and a surprisingly good (relative to expectations) Cheryl Ladd.
by Anonymous | reply 358 | June 30, 2025 11:15 PM |
was the Carol Burnnett / Rock Huson I Do I Do ever on cable?
by Anonymous | reply 359 | June 30, 2025 11:30 PM |
Agree that audiences were more sophisticated and discerning 40 or 50 years ago— for example when standing ovations were reserved for the exceptional instead of every single performance of everything.
by Anonymous | reply 360 | June 30, 2025 11:43 PM |
R359. No but it was on cable with Lee Remick and Hal Linden.
by Anonymous | reply 361 | June 30, 2025 11:49 PM |
It looks like they've closed off the real mezz while Audra is on vacation.
by Anonymous | reply 362 | June 30, 2025 11:49 PM |
‘Phantom’ Spin-Off ‘Masquerade’ Sells Out Six Weeks Of Previews In Three Hours:
by Anonymous | reply 363 | July 1, 2025 12:32 AM |
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^proving how unsophisticated and undiscerning audiences are today^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
by Anonymous | reply 364 | July 1, 2025 1:04 AM |
Are there any Terrence McNally plays solid enough for revival?
by Anonymous | reply 365 | July 1, 2025 1:13 AM |
Is it finally time for an actual Broadway production of Lips Together, Teeth Apart?
by Anonymous | reply 366 | July 1, 2025 1:34 AM |
I'd like to see Joe Mantello take a shot at directing "A Perfect Ganesh". Solid play for two great actresses between 65 and 75. Kathy Bates and Olivia Coleman? Cherry Jones and J. Smith Cameron?
by Anonymous | reply 367 | July 1, 2025 1:36 AM |
Olivia Colman is 51, R367.
by Anonymous | reply 368 | July 1, 2025 1:40 AM |
She certainly reads older.
by Anonymous | reply 369 | July 1, 2025 1:41 AM |
R368. She looks 61!
by Anonymous | reply 370 | July 1, 2025 1:47 AM |
Laurie Metcalf and Elizabeth McGovern.
by Anonymous | reply 371 | July 1, 2025 2:01 AM |
Has Joe Turners Come and Gone ever sold tickets? I was surprised that was coming back...Not one of August Wilson's best...
by Anonymous | reply 372 | July 1, 2025 2:13 AM |
Well, it's no 40 Carats ...
by Anonymous | reply 373 | July 1, 2025 2:21 AM |
It's not even 6 Rms Riv Vu.
by Anonymous | reply 374 | July 1, 2025 2:24 AM |
R366 NOPE!
by Anonymous | reply 375 | July 1, 2025 2:48 AM |
That Roundabout Lips cancellation was so odd. They didn't cancel Doubt when Tyne couldn't continue. Why did they cancel Lips when Megan quit.
by Anonymous | reply 376 | July 1, 2025 2:56 AM |
Is it the play?
by Anonymous | reply 377 | July 1, 2025 2:59 AM |
[quote]I'd like to see Joe Mantello take a shot at directing "A Perfect Ganesh".
Joe has retired to the Hamptons. He's made $100 million from Wicked and never has to work again.
by Anonymous | reply 379 | July 1, 2025 3:52 AM |
R379-No. He hasn't.
by Anonymous | reply 380 | July 1, 2025 3:53 AM |
R380, He certainly has. He just gave away $1 million to the University of North Carolina.
by Anonymous | reply 381 | July 1, 2025 3:57 AM |
I saw Montego Glover's first Gypsy performance. Happy to answer any questions.
by Anonymous | reply 382 | July 1, 2025 3:57 AM |
You know what America needs right now?
[italic]6 Rms Riv Vu
by Anonymous | reply 383 | July 1, 2025 4:00 AM |
You don't say, r383.
by Anonymous | reply 384 | July 1, 2025 4:07 AM |
R382, how was she?
by Anonymous | reply 385 | July 1, 2025 5:03 AM |
Mantello lives in Rancho Mirage.
by Anonymous | reply 386 | July 1, 2025 5:41 AM |
R385 - very good, but not great. Not: "you must see this performance!"-level.
Her voice is definitely better suited to the role than Audra's though, even in that respect, it's a very respectable, but not very thrilling vocal.
I wonder if they tried to get Heather Hedley in. I feel like she may have given a very memorable performance.
By all means, if you have plans to see it this week, don't cancel. Glover does a very respectable job and I imagine she'll grow with each performance. But, I didn't find it half as thrilling as Bernadette (who defied expectations) or Patti (who lived up to expectations.)
by Anonymous | reply 387 | July 1, 2025 6:03 AM |
R381 that’s not UNC —different university. Pay attention.
by Anonymous | reply 388 | July 1, 2025 6:34 AM |
Here's the comedy revival that Broadway needs right now: "Once More With Feeling." Sadly, DL icon Arlene Francis is no longer available.
by Anonymous | reply 389 | July 1, 2025 7:19 AM |
$6.90 for that bunk?
by Anonymous | reply 390 | July 1, 2025 8:10 AM |
r382
Did she have that inexplicable southern accent as well? Did she sing every song like a gospel song like Audra did?
by Anonymous | reply 391 | July 1, 2025 1:37 PM |
Audra would never approved Heather Headley.
A star NEVER wants a replacement to outshine them while they are still in the role.
by Anonymous | reply 392 | July 1, 2025 2:19 PM |
Tell me about it r392.
by Anonymous | reply 393 | July 1, 2025 2:21 PM |
Is it up to Audra to approve her replacement? Is she a producer?
by Anonymous | reply 394 | July 1, 2025 2:22 PM |
The Secret of Roan Innish
by Anonymous | reply 395 | July 1, 2025 4:35 PM |
[quote]Is it up to Audra to approve her replacement? Is she a producer?
Even if she's not a producer, do you really think the producers would ever hire a replacement not approved by Audra?
by Anonymous | reply 396 | July 1, 2025 5:00 PM |
I certainly wouldn’t do an interview where her name is mentioned, that is for fucking sure!
by Anonymous | reply 397 | July 1, 2025 5:27 PM |
Grosses are out.
1. What the hell were they thinking having Call Me Izzy play at Studio 54?
2. Gypsy gotta be out of here by Labor Day?
3. Can Hadestown and Book of Mormon close already to make room for new shit?
4. The Picture of Dorian Gray closes with 2M!
5. In their last week, Real Women Have Curves made more money than Dead Outlaw.
by Anonymous | reply 398 | July 1, 2025 6:01 PM |
Maybe Happy Ending and Oh, Mary are doing solidly well and certainly aren't in any danger at all but I am surprised they haven't reached 2M post-Tonys.
by Anonymous | reply 399 | July 1, 2025 6:07 PM |
[quote]r398 = 3. Can Hadestown and Book of Mormon close already to make room for new shit?
*What* new shit?
by Anonymous | reply 400 | July 1, 2025 6:17 PM |
Does anyone know what Chicago’s bottom number has to be to stay open? I know it’s been running since 1996, so maybe they want to last in next year to say they ran 30 years, but those numbers are awful.
by Anonymous | reply 401 | July 1, 2025 6:25 PM |
8 Inches keeps those bottoms open night after night.
by Anonymous | reply 402 | July 1, 2025 6:28 PM |
Elaine Paige is at the opening of Evita tonite.
by Anonymous | reply 403 | July 1, 2025 6:43 PM |
R401: Cheap, easy show to run, easy show to stunt cast, undesirable venue, etc.
by Anonymous | reply 404 | July 1, 2025 6:44 PM |
[quote]Did she have that inexplicable southern accent as well? Did she sing every song like a gospel song like Audra did?
Interestingly, Montego did not have a trace of that odd Southern drawl Audra is doing. It does make one wonder how much of that was Audra's choice vs. George C. Wolf's direction.
by Anonymous | reply 405 | July 1, 2025 8:09 PM |
I don't know if LaChanze is focusing on producing now, but I feel like she would have made an interesting Rose.
by Anonymous | reply 406 | July 1, 2025 8:11 PM |
They should have gotten Fantasia.
by Anonymous | reply 407 | July 1, 2025 8:21 PM |
[quote]Interestingly, Montego did not have a trace of that odd Southern drawl Audra is doing. It does make one wonder how much of that was Audra's choice vs. George C. Wolf's direction.
Also interesting that some of you are describing what Audra does as a "Southern drawl," when there's far more accurate phrasing for it than that. But I assume it's because some might consider the alternate phrasing offensive, even if it is more accurate?
by Anonymous | reply 408 | July 1, 2025 8:27 PM |
[QUOTE] They should have gotten Fantasia
Oooo, she could actually be really good.
by Anonymous | reply 409 | July 1, 2025 8:52 PM |
You can be sure all those powerhouse divas were offered Vacation Momma Rose and they all turned it down.
by Anonymous | reply 410 | July 1, 2025 8:56 PM |
This is a dumb question but I seem to remember that some commercial used "One" from A CHORUS LINE to promote a product sometime in the 80s or 90s. I am blanking on what it is.....do any of you remember?
by Anonymous | reply 411 | July 1, 2025 9:42 PM |
R399 $2m what? Gross for a week? They'd have to significantly increase ticket prices.
Both those shows are playing smaller houses with much smaller capacity.
GGR, Hamilton are both in 10k cap territory and Wicked and Lion King are in the 13k to 15k range.
by Anonymous | reply 412 | July 1, 2025 9:53 PM |
The hilarious Hannah Solow is on as Mary Todd Lincoln tonite.
by Anonymous | reply 413 | July 1, 2025 9:57 PM |
John Proctor is still selling out and they still seem to be set to close on Aug 31st.
by Anonymous | reply 414 | July 1, 2025 10:01 PM |
That's two months away, r414.
by Anonymous | reply 415 | July 1, 2025 10:20 PM |
Which isn't very far away. If they're extending, they'll need to announce it soon. You can't wait until the last minute.
Obviously we can't see what their ticket sales projections look like...maybe they're not great but still. It's selling out. Strange.
by Anonymous | reply 416 | July 1, 2025 10:36 PM |
I saw the Color Purple at the Goodman in Chicago.
It was a fabulous production and the whole cast/crew did a great job.
If you are close to Chicago and can go, go!
by Anonymous | reply 417 | July 1, 2025 10:48 PM |
The Color Purple is solid stage musical. It's not one of the greatest of all time, but it (obviously) has a great story. The adaptation sometimes oversimplifies things but you have a lot of plot plus songs to squeeze in. The songs are pretty good; Celie has a great 11 o'clock number. Hire a talented cast and a competent director and you have a great night of live musical theater.
by Anonymous | reply 418 | July 1, 2025 11:26 PM |
[quote]Does anyone know what Chicago’s bottom number has to be to stay open? I know it’s been running since 1996, so maybe they want to last in next year to say they ran 30 years, but those numbers are awful.
CHICAGO is following the playbook that OH! CALCUTTA! created for its long run on Broadway. The producers have renegotiated all the royalties with the creative team so that they receive payment only on the weeks when the show generates revenue above the nut. Most of the cast is on or close to Broadway minimum, and the producers have renegotiated the number of crew down from the ones usually required for a house the size of the Ambassador. The cast and crew who have stayed with the show for a long time are happy to receive a regular paycheck - something not guaranteed on Broadway - and can pursue other interests, afford a mortgage for their condos in Upper Manhattan, Brooklyn, or homes in New Jersey, and enjoy a more stable financial situation. When the stunt cast works well, the dynamic pricing kicks in, and the producers make enough to cover the weeks when they lose. It's become the home for talented newcomers who need a Broadway credit, or old-timers who don't get cast in the newer shows but still have enough looks and talent to keep working. All of this is overseen by a stage manager and company manager who run the production with an iron fist, just as the producers require.
It's a great example of why the operative word in show business is BUSINESS, and why a lot of people leave commercial theater when they realize that art is not the driving force. At least, that's why I left.
by Anonymous | reply 419 | July 1, 2025 11:47 PM |
R419, and then they take the job away and you are ruined. So much so that at least one person committed suicide
by Anonymous | reply 420 | July 2, 2025 12:06 AM |
The creators are dumb to let it run like this forever. It tarnishes the show...it becomes "oh...that tired old corny Chicago...ugh"
by Anonymous | reply 421 | July 2, 2025 12:16 AM |
R418, all of what you wrote about CHICAGO makes sense to me, except the following:
[quote]...the producers have renegotiated the number of crew down from the ones usually required for a house the size of the Ambassador.
How the hell did they manage THAT in the face of union opposition?
by Anonymous | reply 422 | July 2, 2025 12:54 AM |
Since Jinkx helped boost their box office, surprised Chicago hasn't cast other drag stars as Mama Morton.
It's not a difficult role.
by Anonymous | reply 423 | July 2, 2025 1:03 AM |
R422, the union crew at the Ambassador allowed it to happen. It was never a popular theater, and as a result, there were many weeks with no work. Each theater has a minimum crew assigned to it, which is expanded when a new show comes in. Now there's a long-running show, and they want to keep it running. The way to do that is to reduce the required number of crew and assign those jobs to old-timers (and their relatives) so that they can perform their tasks with a minimum of effort. These crew pressured the union to accept the deal, and the union won by having more employed hours on their books to show their members. From my experience, the crew was generally pleased with how it turned out.
For a similar story, look at the musicians who worked the entire run of PHANTOM both on the West End and in New York. They negotiated a deal with their union. When Phantom opened in the West End, it had a 27-member orchestra. When it closed in London, the orchestra was reduced to 14 musicians. Similarly, the Broadway production began with a 29-piece orchestra, which was later reduced to 27, and remained at that size until the show closed. Those few musicians who were cut, along with other cuts in the cast and crew, and reduced royalties to the creative team, created a much more reasonable nut that enabled these shows to run for a long time.
by Anonymous | reply 424 | July 2, 2025 1:12 AM |
And, of course, the way this Chicago is designed - sets, costumes, lights - there's very little to run or maintain.
by Anonymous | reply 425 | July 2, 2025 1:22 AM |
Debbie Allen is directing an August Wilson play? Oh Jesus...Did she get envious of her sister directing PURPOSE?
Hopefully she can interpolate something from this:
by Anonymous | reply 427 | July 2, 2025 4:26 AM |
[quote] Tryphena sounds like the name of a medication.
I’ve lost 25 pounds since I’ve been on Tryphena!
by Anonymous | reply 428 | July 2, 2025 9:41 AM |
London Palladium Hit ‘Evita’ Could Move Straight To Broadway:
by Anonymous | reply 429 | July 2, 2025 11:11 AM |
[quote]I’ve lost 25 pounds since I’ve been on Tryphena!
Good for you, Beanie.
Broadway still doesn’t want you.
by Anonymous | reply 430 | July 2, 2025 11:16 AM |
R429. They're already building a 'balcony' on the exterior of the St James.
by Anonymous | reply 431 | July 2, 2025 1:15 PM |
[quote] They're already building a 'balcony' on the exterior of the St James.
Which tells you what people think the chances of The Queen of Versailles being a "hit" are.
by Anonymous | reply 432 | July 2, 2025 1:22 PM |
Can someone tell me why the St James gets all these big shows that everyone wants to see when they have the worst leg room of any theatre?
I have seen so many shows at the St James and it is always a shitsho, going back from The Producers, Into the Woods, Sunset Blvd, Queen of Versailles and now Evita
by Anonymous | reply 433 | July 2, 2025 1:34 PM |
R426: Deadline thinks Dead Outlaw earning 681K is going out with a bang?
by Anonymous | reply 434 | July 2, 2025 1:37 PM |
[quote]Can someone tell me why the St James gets all these big shows that everyone wants to see when they have the worst leg room of any theatre?
Ever been in the balcony of Studio 54? That's not a patterned carpet up there, it's blood stains from scraped knees.
by Anonymous | reply 435 | July 2, 2025 4:18 PM |
Prices for Evita will continue their wacko upward trajectory.
by Anonymous | reply 436 | July 2, 2025 4:35 PM |
Saw Death Becomes Her. A friend really wanted to go. I didn't think it would be my thing. I was wrong. I found it a total delight. I'm actually surprised it's the first Broadway show for the composers and librettist. It may not be Pulitzer-worthy, but it's really well crafted musical comedy.
by Anonymous | reply 437 | July 3, 2025 5:33 AM |
Satire is not your strong suit^
by Anonymous | reply 438 | July 3, 2025 5:58 AM |
[quote]Debbie Allen is directing an August Wilson play? Oh Jesus...Did she get envious of her sister directing PURPOSE?
Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad should bring John Henry Redwood's THE OLD SETTLER to Broadway.
Set in 1940s Harlem, the play is about a spinster who romances her young hepcat boarder against the wishes of her newly separated sister who has come to live with her.
In the spring of 2001, Debbie directed a movie version they both starred in that aired on PBS.
It also co-starred the delicious Bumper Robinson.
I think it could be a hit with both of them in the lead roles and a sexy young actor as the lodger.
by Anonymous | reply 439 | July 3, 2025 2:42 PM |
The Allen sisters have consistently supported each other throughout the years. It's refreshing.
by Anonymous | reply 440 | July 3, 2025 3:00 PM |
For anyone who wants to see Montego this week BO rush Tix are $25 and digital rush is $30. This week only.
by Anonymous | reply 441 | July 3, 2025 4:55 PM |
R441 yikes.
by Anonymous | reply 442 | July 3, 2025 5:04 PM |
r439, the Allen sisters are in their mid-70s. Does the play examine the age differentiation between two elderly women and a hepcat?
by Anonymous | reply 443 | July 3, 2025 5:47 PM |
I don't have the patience to watch all of The Old Settler but just getting a few glimpses, it seems beautifully produced, quite intriguing. Phylicia looks gorgeous.
Thanks for posting, r439.
by Anonymous | reply 444 | July 3, 2025 6:34 PM |
The Allen Sisters are poised for a remount of Arsenic & Old Lace.
Or, "Snoop Sisters: The Musical!"
by Anonymous | reply 445 | July 3, 2025 7:39 PM |
[quote][R439], the Allen sisters are in their mid-70s. Does the play examine the age differentiation between two elderly women and a hepcat?
In the play, the sisters are supposed to be in their fifties (the roomer in his twenties) but stage actors are always playing a decade or two younger, which is easy to get away with in a darkened theater and sitting several yards away.
by Anonymous | reply 446 | July 4, 2025 12:14 AM |
Saw PIRATES! tonight and happy to report the whole cast was in. It's kind of a hot mess, but the audience was eating it up.
by Anonymous | reply 447 | July 4, 2025 2:32 AM |
Was the theatre a hot mess as well? People are complaining about the air conditioning.
by Anonymous | reply 448 | July 4, 2025 2:38 AM |
I'm not surprised that folks under 30 don't know Trollope.
by Anonymous | reply 449 | July 4, 2025 3:32 AM |
R449 There's not that many folks OVER 30 who know Trollope.
At least in Amerika.
by Anonymous | reply 450 | July 4, 2025 3:51 AM |
But enough about Sutton Foster, R449.
by Anonymous | reply 451 | July 4, 2025 12:36 PM |
[quote] Was the theatre a hot mess as well? People are complaining about the air conditioning.
A/C was ok, not great - but it was on. (I like it freezing!)
Now, the sound mixing is another thing.... why is the orchestra so loud and the mics on the actors so low?
by Anonymous | reply 452 | July 4, 2025 6:15 PM |
Is “You Must Love Me” included in the new Evita revival? Asking for a friend.
by Anonymous | reply 453 | July 4, 2025 8:06 PM |
it was last time
by Anonymous | reply 454 | July 4, 2025 8:58 PM |
Yes, "You Must Love Me" is included in the new London Palladium "Evita." It has been moved closer to the end than it was in the Ricky Martin-Elena Roger revival.
by Anonymous | reply 455 | July 4, 2025 9:08 PM |
They've staged You Must Love Me this time as a freewheeling patio number.
by Anonymous | reply 456 | July 4, 2025 9:10 PM |
All of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals are getting a remount...how long before we have to endure "Starlight Express: The Superspeed Boogaloo Edition"?
by Anonymous | reply 457 | July 4, 2025 9:11 PM |
R456 and Karen Ziemba does handstands while Rachel sings!
by Anonymous | reply 458 | July 4, 2025 9:17 PM |
[quote]Yes, "You Must Love Me" is included in the new London Palladium "Evita." It has been moved closer to the end than it was in the Ricky Martin-Elena Roger revival.
I didn't like how in that revival "You Must Love Me" was sandwiched between "Waltz for Eva and Che" and "She Is a Diamond."
It flows better and makes more sense if it's inserted between "Dice Are Rolling" and "Eva's Final Broadcast."
Where do they put it this time?
by Anonymous | reply 459 | July 4, 2025 9:23 PM |
Not where you want it. But it’s just the tip.
by Anonymous | reply 460 | July 4, 2025 9:45 PM |
And now Richard Greenberg has died.
Accomplished, prolific Tony Award-winning playwright of TAKE ME OUT, 3 DAYS OF RAIN, EASTERN STANDARD, THE VIOLET HOUR, THE AMERICAN PLAN, THE ASSEMBLED PARTIES and so much more.
RIP
by Anonymous | reply 461 | July 4, 2025 11:03 PM |
I really liked EASTERN STANDARD a lot!
by Anonymous | reply 462 | July 4, 2025 11:16 PM |
While I love You must love me... it is unnecessary... Eva should not be softened in the show
by Anonymous | reply 463 | July 4, 2025 11:18 PM |
Did anyone here know Mark Brokaw? Was he nice, mean… what? I worked with him once at the start of his career but he didn’t strike me as either/or.
by Anonymous | reply 464 | July 4, 2025 11:26 PM |
I worked with Mark B. a few times and found him a bit stand-offish and shy in a Midwestern kind of way socially, but an extremely caring, generous and intelligent director. Someone who really wanted to get the playwright's intentions onstage.
by Anonymous | reply 465 | July 4, 2025 11:33 PM |
Mark was a quiet genius. A lovely, lovely man.
by Anonymous | reply 466 | July 5, 2025 12:07 AM |
Greenberg lived in my building. An odd duck…
by Anonymous | reply 467 | July 5, 2025 12:22 AM |
“You must love me” kills the flow of the stage musical. Why do they feel they have to include it?
No one know it anyway
by Anonymous | reply 468 | July 5, 2025 2:14 AM |
Greenberg lived in that building on W23rd St. for decades. He could often be found at the Moonstruck Diner just up the street.
by Anonymous | reply 469 | July 5, 2025 2:21 AM |
A different Richard Greenberg died, not the playwright.
by Anonymous | reply 470 | July 5, 2025 4:02 AM |
Just came here after seeing Greenberg's death announced on Mark Harris's social media....but based on R470's post he may have the wrong Richard......
by Anonymous | reply 471 | July 5, 2025 4:08 AM |
Eh, never mind. Hey R470, look at the date of your link, it's from 2018.
by Anonymous | reply 472 | July 5, 2025 4:09 AM |
Maybe they can drench Aspects of Love performers in paint or blood to liven up that dreary show.
by Anonymous | reply 473 | July 5, 2025 4:25 AM |
[quote]r468 “You must love me” kills the flow of the stage musical. Why do they feel they have to include it?
Something I remember from the movie is that the last section was SO drawn out! The LAST thing it needed there was another ballad.
We're ready for Eva to die by then. Just die, bitch. Die.
by Anonymous | reply 474 | July 5, 2025 4:44 AM |
Just Die Another Day already...
by Anonymous | reply 475 | July 5, 2025 4:58 AM |
R469 your info is way out of date.
by Anonymous | reply 476 | July 5, 2025 6:22 AM |
[quote] There's not that many folks OVER 30 who know Trollope.
I’ve never known where to start with Trollope.
by Anonymous | reply 477 | July 5, 2025 6:28 AM |
I just read what was at hand - The Eustace Diamonds.
What's weird is so much of the pleasure with period pieces is the descriptions of the clothes and scenery and stuff... where you might really feel you're entering another world. Trollope hardly describes any of that stuff.
I don't feel compelled to read anything by him again.
by Anonymous | reply 478 | July 5, 2025 6:35 AM |
Just watch the tv versions
by Anonymous | reply 479 | July 5, 2025 6:49 AM |
Must say, Rachel Zegler sounds sensational here.
by Anonymous | reply 480 | July 5, 2025 7:32 AM |
[quote]“You must love me” kills the flow of the stage musical. Why do they feel they have to include it?
The only reason it was written for the movie was so that the film would be eligible for a best song Oscar nomination.
by Anonymous | reply 481 | July 5, 2025 8:26 AM |
R481 which it won.
- "Because You Loved Me" from UP CLOSE & PERSONAL
- "For the First Time" from ONE FINE DAY
- "I Finally Found Someone" from THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES
- "That Thing You Do!" from THAT THING YOU DO!
- "You Must Love Me" from EVITA **winner**
by Anonymous | reply 482 | July 5, 2025 8:57 AM |
[quote]- "I Finally Found Someone" from THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES
THE MIRROR HAS TWO FILTERS
(ftfy)
by Anonymous | reply 483 | July 5, 2025 9:16 AM |
That Thing You Do should have won. It was catchy, well crafted and organic to the story. Not for the credits or to gin up an award.
by Anonymous | reply 484 | July 5, 2025 9:42 AM |
Madge gave both Sondheim and ALW their Oscars. Not bad for a movie killer.
by Anonymous | reply 485 | July 5, 2025 10:46 AM |
With Trollope, start with The Warden. It's short, and if you don't like it, you probably won't like the rest.
by Anonymous | reply 486 | July 5, 2025 11:35 AM |
r480
she really does... Are they doing a cast recording?
by Anonymous | reply 487 | July 5, 2025 12:32 PM |
Looks like Rachel has found a role and a production that fits her quite well.
Next stop: the Great White Way. I smell a Tony.
by Anonymous | reply 488 | July 5, 2025 12:34 PM |
Aspects of Love was revived in London s few years ago. It was a terrible production that was badly cast, badly directed and had revisions that made the show worse instead of better. The limited run ended three months early.
by Anonymous | reply 489 | July 5, 2025 12:51 PM |
Huge Trollope fan here but The Eustace Diamonds is not one of my favorites (also where Trollope's anti-Semitism is most apparent).
My personal picks are his masterpiece The Way We Live Now, He Knew He Was Right and Orley Farm. The first two have brilliant all UK-Star BBC adaptations. But they're all very long. Two of his shorter novels that I love are The Vicar of Bullhampton and The Belton Estate - both excellent places to begin reading Trollope.
Why are we discussing Trollope on the Theatre Gossip thread/
by Anonymous | reply 490 | July 5, 2025 12:55 PM |
r476, out of date?
I wasn't writing a breaking news article. Simply talking about where Rich Greenberg spent many decades of his life.
by Anonymous | reply 491 | July 5, 2025 12:58 PM |
Because “that building” in your post is a reference to my post and my building, which is not on 23rd street. Capice? R469
by Anonymous | reply 492 | July 5, 2025 1:33 PM |
Evita was revived by Diane Paulus at ART recently but it went nowhere.
by Anonymous | reply 493 | July 5, 2025 1:37 PM |
Wow. So the playwright Greenberg really is dead.
Sad to say, for the most part, I hated his plays
by Anonymous | reply 495 | July 5, 2025 2:00 PM |
That obit may or may not be considered "official," as news of the death is at this point based only on social media posts from friends of Greenberg, and there is no death date or cause given, etc. Not that I doubt Greenberg is dead, but all the pertinent info is not in yet.
by Anonymous | reply 496 | July 5, 2025 2:57 PM |
Jean Smart out of Izzy this afternoon
by Anonymous | reply 497 | July 5, 2025 3:42 PM |
Is she dead too??!
by Anonymous | reply 498 | July 5, 2025 3:51 PM |
She better be.
by Anonymous | reply 499 | July 5, 2025 4:03 PM |
I saw that London revival of Aspects of Love two years ago, and it was so bad I thought I was having a stroke. It’a just so weirdly plotted that had no idea what was going on, and then it all just ends rather abruptly.
Wild.
by Anonymous | reply 500 | July 5, 2025 5:22 PM |
Funny how both Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sondheim have had mini-renaissances. In Sondheim’s case, the revivals were most successful with straightforward, text-based interpretations. With Lloyd Webber, the most successful revivals have ignored the text altogether and created a wholly different show.
by Anonymous | reply 501 | July 5, 2025 5:36 PM |
Was "Butch" Michael Ball still using Broadway's favorite Royal stagehand HRH Princess a Windsor as his personal dumpster!!! Hated Aspects of Love back then too.
The blowjobs were nice.
by Anonymous | reply 502 | July 5, 2025 5:43 PM |
^^^I forgot the " A"^^^
by Anonymous | reply 503 | July 5, 2025 5:44 PM |
OK-my laptop is possessed-I typed the name twice-only the A showed up!!
by Anonymous | reply 504 | July 5, 2025 5:47 PM |
Go away for a whole.
by Anonymous | reply 505 | July 5, 2025 6:12 PM |
r492, sorry, I don't know where you live(d) but the Rich Greenberg who I worked with on 4 productions lived in a big old building on W23rd St. between 8th and 9th Aves. for many years (at least the 20+ years when I worked with him). As I said upthread we'd often meet for coffee and work at the Moonstruck Diner down the block.
by Anonymous | reply 506 | July 5, 2025 6:15 PM |
Maybe Patti Lupone and Mia Farrow can do their version of the female Odd Couple. (In a nursing home.)
by Anonymous | reply 507 | July 5, 2025 6:30 PM |
I wonder how ALW's new musical The Illusionist is coming along? Jamie Lloyd is directing. It sounds like a cousin to Phantom of the Opera. I know they wanted Ariana Grande to play the female lead. I doubt she would want to be tied to a stage show for a whole year.
With director Lloyd, writers Terrio and Major on board, the next important step is to find someone to create the illusions for The Illusionist. There’s an illusion, Lloyd Webber divulges, “where we can literally disappear somebody in front of the audience,” and there are a couple of other coup de théâtre magical moments that will need to be developed. ”They’re not a huge part of the show, but they’re a very important part of the show,” he explains, but they need to be designed at the “get-go.”
Harrison adds: “Whoever the magic person is, and we don’t know who it is yet, they’ll be heavily involved because it’s very important, obviously, if you’re doing a show called The Illusionist, that there be good illusions.”
by Anonymous | reply 508 | July 5, 2025 7:20 PM |
R506 you referenced my post. I don’t live on 23rd st. Neither does Richard; he lived in the same building for over20 years. You can stop now; thanks in advance.
by Anonymous | reply 510 | July 5, 2025 7:39 PM |
It's the Fifth of July. Or in Lanford Wilson's world, 5th of July. Is it done any more or worth reviving? I saw it on Broadway with Richard Thomas (heartbreaking), Swoozie Kurtz (hilarious) and Jeff Daniels (dreamy). An excellent night out.
by Anonymous | reply 511 | July 5, 2025 7:48 PM |
[quote]R500 It was so bad I thought I was having a stroke.
Oh, my.
Well, there’s a review I’ve never read before!
by Anonymous | reply 513 | July 5, 2025 8:33 PM |
[quote]R507 Maybe Patti Lupone and Mia Farrow can do their version of the female Odd Couple. (In a nursing home.)
I hope so. I am very intrigued by the idea of big stars being trapped in threadbare revivals of Neil Simon’s shitty plays.
by Anonymous | reply 514 | July 5, 2025 8:38 PM |
Jen Aniston and Courtney Loves Cox for a Netflix remake of The Odd Couple, ployse!
by Anonymous | reply 515 | July 5, 2025 8:42 PM |
Titus out of both Marys today. Smart out of Izzy again tonite and tomorrow. Is there any other reason to see the play?
by Anonymous | reply 516 | July 5, 2025 9:14 PM |
Maybe Titus and Jean were at the same BBQ and ate some nasty potato salad?
by Anonymous | reply 517 | July 5, 2025 9:18 PM |
I'm too lazy to go look....if Smart is out of Izzy, do they just cancel the show or does she have a standby?
by Anonymous | reply 518 | July 5, 2025 9:19 PM |
R517. Was the BBQ at Audra's house?
by Anonymous | reply 519 | July 5, 2025 9:20 PM |
R519 Audra only serves Chipotle at her parties.
It's in her contract.
by Anonymous | reply 520 | July 5, 2025 9:27 PM |
R499 was Annie Potts.
I also love r514 referring to Patti LuPone as a big star!
by Anonymous | reply 521 | July 5, 2025 9:50 PM |
And that’s just her nose!
by Anonymous | reply 522 | July 5, 2025 9:57 PM |
Johanna Day is Jean Smart's understudy/standby.
by Anonymous | reply 523 | July 5, 2025 10:05 PM |
R523 So when Jean is out, do they ring her up and sing, "We need you, Johanna ..."?
by Anonymous | reply 524 | July 5, 2025 10:07 PM |
Oh, I would definitely see that, R523. Day stopped the show in How I Learned to Drive a couple of years ago with her big monologue. I thought she should have been nominated for that; she was superb.
by Anonymous | reply 525 | July 5, 2025 10:45 PM |
R502, are your posts usually so inscrutable?
by Anonymous | reply 526 | July 5, 2025 11:21 PM |
[quote]I also love R514 referring to Patti LuPone as a big star! — Kecia
Don’t test me, girl! You’re not to old to be shoved in some dreadful musical version of THE MARRYING MAN.
by Anonymous | reply 527 | July 6, 2025 1:28 AM |
17 year okd Emma Kok, who has.a serious chronic illness, performing a song from the musical Elisabeth on a Dutch reality competition series called Stars On Stage. Wow. The show’s host is hot looking. Could be a pocket gay.
by Anonymous | reply 528 | July 6, 2025 1:45 AM |
Apparently, you can get dirt cheap tickets to catch Montego Glover in Gypsy for the remainder of her run. I saw her first performance. She was very good... but she isn't doing anything remarkable or must-see in the role. And, yes, her voice is much better suited for the role than Audra's, but, it's still not a homerun in that regard.
But if you're local and have a free evening... well worth seeing her.
by Anonymous | reply 529 | July 6, 2025 2:55 AM |
Yes, the Telecharge Rush tickets are $30 for Montego/Gypsy. Box Office Rush is $25. I'm pretty sure you could get a rush ticket at curtain time, the last two rows of the orchestra were empty last night.
by Anonymous | reply 530 | July 6, 2025 11:11 AM |
I can't always keep up with these threads. Did we already discuss the Kiss of the Spider Woman trailer? What was the reaction? I was... underwhelmed. It definitely looks modestly budgeted.
by Anonymous | reply 531 | July 6, 2025 12:07 PM |
Without Audra, no one wants to see any production of Gypsy
by Anonymous | reply 532 | July 6, 2025 12:42 PM |
R511
"I told you he had a wooden leg!"
"Oh I just thought you meant he liked to drink a lot!"
by Anonymous | reply 533 | July 6, 2025 2:46 PM |
R532 you are forgiven for your grammar error. The correct writing of your sentence is “With Audra”
by Anonymous | reply 534 | July 6, 2025 3:41 PM |
Speaking of FOLLIES, did anyone else see the recent Q&A interview with Kelli O’Hara about her part in “The Gilded Age” getting meatier this season?
She seems like an intelligent, lovely woman. Anyway at the end, after talking about theater being her great love but how you have to now get known in other media to be seen as someone who can carry a Broadway show, she’s asked if she has had a hankering to play Sally in FOLLIES, and she replies that she and Laura Benanti talk about doing it together and switching off on the parts of Phyllis and Sally the way Laura Linney and Cynthia Nixon did with “The Little Foxes.”
I can see it.
by Anonymous | reply 536 | July 6, 2025 4:46 PM |
Kelli would be a great Sally. Perfect casting.
by Anonymous | reply 537 | July 6, 2025 5:01 PM |
Why does the r528 actress refuse to sing in English?
by Anonymous | reply 538 | July 6, 2025 5:50 PM |
Ah yes! A revival of Follies starring Laura Benanti and Kelli O’Hara would absolutely LIGHT the box office on fire!
by Anonymous | reply 539 | July 6, 2025 8:13 PM |
With a stunt-casting of one of the roles (maybe Carlotta?), it absolutely could, R539.
The NT production was magnificent and should have transferred to Broadway.
by Anonymous | reply 540 | July 6, 2025 8:26 PM |
R538, Elisabeth is a Viennese musical and she’s singjng the Dutch translation of the main power ballad in it.
by Anonymous | reply 541 | July 6, 2025 8:43 PM |
R540 But not with elderly osycho Munchkin Imelda.
by Anonymous | reply 542 | July 6, 2025 8:44 PM |
Kristin Chenoweth needs to play Sally Plummer before she’s too old.
by Anonymous | reply 543 | July 6, 2025 9:11 PM |
Yeah, I’ve always wanted to see a Looney Tunes Follies.
by Anonymous | reply 544 | July 6, 2025 9:12 PM |
I can actually see Kristin and Idina as sally and Phyllis. Vanessa Williams as Carlotta.
by Anonymous | reply 545 | July 6, 2025 9:13 PM |
Raul Esparza as Ben. Norbert Leo Butz as Buddy.
by Anonymous | reply 546 | July 6, 2025 9:16 PM |
Kristin is too short for Follies.
Idina is too oddlooking. Ben's not marrying THAT.
by Anonymous | reply 547 | July 6, 2025 9:40 PM |
[quote]Funny how both Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sondheim have had mini-renaissances. In Sondheim’s case, the revivals were most successful with straightforward, text-based interpretations. With Lloyd Webber, the most successful revivals have ignored the text altogether and created a wholly different show.
If Andy wants straightforward, text-based interpretations of his works, he can get them the same way Sondheim did
He can die
by Anonymous | reply 548 | July 6, 2025 10:11 PM |
Like Gypsy, no one wants to see Follies ever again
by Anonymous | reply 549 | July 6, 2025 10:19 PM |
Bless your heart, r549.
by Anonymous | reply 550 | July 6, 2025 10:22 PM |
R549 Agreed.
by Anonymous | reply 551 | July 6, 2025 10:24 PM |
I'd love to see a good live production of Follies.
My shocking admission: I've never seen it live.
It's not done a lot.
by Anonymous | reply 552 | July 6, 2025 11:00 PM |
I saw Bernadette’s revival at the Kennedy Center with DL fave Linda Lavin.
People routinely rip Bernadette to shreds, but I loved her and the production!
by Anonymous | reply 553 | July 6, 2025 11:07 PM |
R553, I agree on Bernadette in Follies. In my view, she was much better at the Kennedy Center than on Broadway, where the entire cast was over- and mis- directed. In DC, she was driven to get what she had missed out on. In New York, she was depressed and teary from her start. However, Jan Maxwell didn’t let Schaeffer get in her way. She was fantastic all four times I saw the show.
by Anonymous | reply 555 | July 6, 2025 11:29 PM |
[quote]People routinely rip Bernadette to shreds, but I loved her and the production!
That production of "Follies" was directed by Eric Schaeffer, who's pretty much a hack.
by Anonymous | reply 556 | July 6, 2025 11:46 PM |
Bernadette’s raspy, failing voice was perfect for character in Follies
by Anonymous | reply 557 | July 7, 2025 12:03 AM |
A hack who was justifiably canceled and never heard from again, r556.
by Anonymous | reply 558 | July 7, 2025 12:22 AM |
FOLLIES lends itself to a lot of bad graphics.
See R554
by Anonymous | reply 559 | July 7, 2025 12:46 AM |
^^^OP. Why a lot of bad graphics about FOLLIES^^^ PLEASE EXPLAIN.
by Anonymous | reply 560 | July 7, 2025 1:26 AM |
[quote]I can't always keep up with these threads. Did we already discuss the Kiss of the Spider Woman trailer? What was the reaction? I was... underwhelmed. It definitely looks modestly budgeted.
Looks cheap. It's been de-musicalized like "Cabaret" where all the characters songs have been thrown out except for Jlo's as she sings in a movie.
by Anonymous | reply 561 | July 7, 2025 2:00 AM |
Honestly, Kiss of the Spider Woman completely sucks as a musical. I'm fine with cutting most of its stupid songs
by Anonymous | reply 562 | July 7, 2025 2:11 AM |
There are JLo fans insisting she's gonna get an Oscar!
by Anonymous | reply 563 | July 7, 2025 2:33 AM |
It was a VERY long time ago (I was in jr high school), but I recall being captivated by the national tour of Kiss of the Spider Woman -- Hal Prince's cinematic direction, Kander & Ebb's strongest score since Chicago and, to quote Rupaul, Chita's charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent made for a pretty thrilling evening in the theatre.
by Anonymous | reply 564 | July 7, 2025 5:44 AM |
Why does Eva look like she just came from the gym?
by Anonymous | reply 565 | July 7, 2025 2:11 PM |
Damn, based on Aaron Tveit's emaciated appearance in recent publicity photos for CHESS, it looks like that boy seriously needs to eat an overstuffed sandwich.
by Anonymous | reply 566 | July 7, 2025 4:19 PM |
You bitches are slipping!
We officially have a Sunday Matinee ROSE!
by Anonymous | reply 567 | July 7, 2025 4:22 PM |
[quote]There are JLo fans insisting she's gonna get an Oscar!
Oh she will fight tooth and nail for it, she'll be everywhere but the mystery will be for Best Actress or Supporting.
by Anonymous | reply 568 | July 7, 2025 4:53 PM |
It’s not a big enough part for Lopez to get a Best Actress nod, even if she has top billing. And her acting in the film-within-a-film (the only time she appears) can’t be good enough to get into that category. Any nomination would depend on her singing and dancing chops and how much her glamour and presence dominates the movie, not acting.
Supporting would be the most she could hope for a la Catherine Zeta-Jones in “Chicago.”
by Anonymous | reply 569 | July 7, 2025 5:26 PM |
R567 - Obviously, they should have done this from the start. Montego gives a very good performance and now she'll have time beyond this week to deepen that performance. I was pleasantly surprised that she wasn't forced to just try and replicate Audra's... um... unique take on the role, too.
by Anonymous | reply 570 | July 7, 2025 6:11 PM |
I'm mesmerized by the arms of Juan Peron.
by Anonymous | reply 571 | July 7, 2025 6:14 PM |
Don’t get her appeal at all. I saw Into the Woods with Patina Miller, who was fine. Then I saw if later in the run. Montego Glover somehow managed to take the luster off a lackluster interpretation. These clips make me want to see Audra again.
by Anonymous | reply 573 | July 7, 2025 7:05 PM |
J.Lo also has the disadvantage of not being popular. It does tend to hurt you when vying for industry awards.
by Anonymous | reply 574 | July 7, 2025 7:23 PM |
Laurie Metcalf back on Broadway, produced by Scott Rudin and directed by the “retired” Joe Mantello.
by Anonymous | reply 575 | July 7, 2025 7:29 PM |
It's a shame that Patina Miller retired from Broadway?
by Anonymous | reply 576 | July 7, 2025 7:40 PM |
I look at those Evita clips and I'm totally baffled why anyone would want to see that shit. Or how any of the reviews were positive.
The world really is ready to end.
by Anonymous | reply 577 | July 7, 2025 7:42 PM |
From that excerpt, Glovver seems the most refined Rose I've ever heard. Does she lay on the thick dialect favored by Audra when Rose's Turn comes around?
by Anonymous | reply 578 | July 7, 2025 7:44 PM |
No, Montego does not attempt any of Audra's dialect, at least not during last week's performances.
by Anonymous | reply 579 | July 7, 2025 8:32 PM |
[quote]From that excerpt, Glovver seems the most refined Rose I've ever heard. Does she lay on the thick dialect favored by Audra when Rose's Turn comes around?
Audra uses that dialect throughout the performance, though it's more exaggerated in some scenes than others. I've laughed when I've read some people describe it as a "Southern drawl." I guess they think it would be politically incorrect to call it what it is: an African-American dialect that's definitely not limited to the South, even if it originated there.
by Anonymous | reply 580 | July 7, 2025 8:44 PM |
r578 - refined is a good word. I saw Montego's first performance and she spoke in a somewhat refined manner. I actually thought it made sense in the context of a Black woman navigating early 20th century America and desperate for respect and status. There were a few moments in which Montego would let some more rawness through... almost like cracks in the facade.. which was quite effective. I don't know that I can fairly judge literally her first performance in front of an audience. It wasn't all there yet... but it had the foundations of what could turn out to be a very strong Rose as she gets more performances under her belt.
Has anyone seen Tryphena? I'm now very curious about how she compares to Audra and Montego.
by Anonymous | reply 581 | July 7, 2025 8:53 PM |
Madame Rose was a real person and she was NOT African American. Sorry, folks.
by Anonymous | reply 582 | July 7, 2025 9:28 PM |
Lord, I despise Jamie Lloyd. That clip at R565 looks wretched.
by Anonymous | reply 583 | July 7, 2025 9:28 PM |
It does, but that clip that someone posted of Rainbow High from earlier actually looked great. Rachel sounded sensational in that one, too. But is everything but Don't Cry for Me staged like a concert?
by Anonymous | reply 584 | July 7, 2025 9:35 PM |
Real Broadway is dead. Full blown Broadway stars won't perform their roles a full weak anymore. Don't feel like working today, hey, call out.
by Anonymous | reply 585 | July 7, 2025 9:38 PM |
[quote]Audra uses that dialect throughout the performance, though it's more exaggerated in some scenes than others. I've laughed when I've read some people describe it as a "Southern drawl." I guess they think it would be politically incorrect to call it what it is: an African-American dialect that's definitely not limited to the South, even if it originated there.
R580 - what is the precise term to describe the dialect she's doing? "African American" if far too broad. Black people weren't then and aren't now a monolith. Whether it has Southern origins or not, it does sound very rural and suggests lower socio economic status. All of which COULD work for Rose, until Audra opens her mouth to sing and this refined operatic'esque soprano comes out. I don't think you can separate her speaking voice from her singing voice and they seem at odds in this performance.
by Anonymous | reply 586 | July 7, 2025 9:38 PM |
The guys in EVITA look hot
by Anonymous | reply 588 | July 7, 2025 9:47 PM |
I'm sure I'll be shrugged off as a pedant for this, but . . . I hate it when people refer to the vocal shifts McDonald's using as "going into her soprano." Those pitches are well within the range of virtually any Broadway belter. Call it "head voice" or (in a few cases) a "legit" sound, fine. But soprano per se it ain't.
by Anonymous | reply 589 | July 7, 2025 9:48 PM |
That's fine, R589. But I think you know that when people do that they're referring to the qualities / timbre / tone / character of her singing voice, not the specific notes she's hitting.
by Anonymous | reply 590 | July 7, 2025 9:51 PM |
Of course I know that, R590. I offered clearer, more accurate ways to say exactly that. Oh, well.
Things like this make me think of Sondheim's comment “The sad truth is that musicals are the only public art form reviewed mostly by ignoramuses.”
by Anonymous | reply 591 | July 7, 2025 9:53 PM |
[quote]Madame Rose was a real person and she was NOT African American. Sorry, folks.
Thanks for educating us, R582.
by Anonymous | reply 592 | July 7, 2025 9:58 PM |
Gosh, a year ago we were speculating on Audra and her inevitable 7th Tony. What has erupted from her casting instead are ongoing and lengthy conversations on vocal registers, performing stamina, frequency of absences, regional/racial dialects, and .... what am I missing? Who knew lil ol GYPSY would end up as such a source of debate.
by Anonymous | reply 593 | July 7, 2025 10:39 PM |
Her awful costumes and wig, r593?
by Anonymous | reply 594 | July 7, 2025 10:45 PM |
Audra uses that same Southern/African-American cadence in The Gilded Age. I'm surprised no one's mentioned it yet.
But then so does Denee Benton, John Douglas Thompson and now, Phylicia Rashad.
It's kind of the equivalent of the phony mid-Atlantic accent the white actors use (except for Alarm Clock Jack).
by Anonymous | reply 595 | July 7, 2025 10:48 PM |
No, you could see it a mile away. People went on about how she couldn’t belt, how Mama Rose couldn’t be black, how 6 Tonys were enough. People who knew what they were talking about could see that Nicole Scherzinger would be serious competition (though I personally disagree in heart, mind, and soul).
One thing I was certain about? The Chipotle jokes, delivered with the decades-expired wit of those who say “ex-squeeze me” as they grope men at parties.
by Anonymous | reply 596 | July 7, 2025 10:51 PM |
Hilty returning to DBH on Wed. She'll be playing 5 shows a week for the next few weeks. Then she'll return to her usual 6 shows a week since the show opened.
by Anonymous | reply 597 | July 7, 2025 11:13 PM |
Honestly, Hilty and Simard's understudies in DBH are great. Don't hesitate to see them if you have tickets and you find out, inevitably, one or both of them is out.
by Anonymous | reply 598 | July 7, 2025 11:23 PM |
Closing this thread out ...
by Anonymous | reply 599 | July 7, 2025 11:25 PM |
BAJOUR!
by Anonymous | reply 600 | July 7, 2025 11:26 PM |
GYPSY!
by Anonymous | reply 601 | July 7, 2025 11:26 PM |